\! 



PAPERS ON INFANT DEVELOPMENT, 



LB 

1119 



PUBLISHED BY THE. 



EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 



American Social Science Association, 



JANUARY, 1882. 



EDITED BY 

MRS. EMILY TALBOT, 
6Q MARLBOROUGH ST., 

BOSTON, MASS. 




TOLMAN & WHITE, PRINTERS, aS3 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON. 

1882. 




Book-^X 



T7 



PAPERS ON INFANT DEVELOPMENT, 



PUBLISHED BY THE 



EDUCATION DEPARTMENT 

OF THE 

/ 

American Social Science Association, 

JANUARY, 1882. 



b 

y < * EDITED BY 



MRS. EMILY TALBOT, 
66 MARLBOKOUGH ST., 

BOSTON, MASS. 




TOUVIAN & WHITE, PRINTERS, 388 "WASHINQTON STREET, BOSTON. 
1882. 



>/l& 



CONTENTS 



\ 






PAGB 


Address of Professor Harris, 1 


Report of Mrs. Talbot, .... 






5 


Letter of Mr. Charles Darwin, 






6 


Letter of A. Bronson Alcott, . 






8 


Statement of Cases Reported to Mrs. Talbot, 






. 11-24 


Case A, . ■ 






11 


Case B, 






13 


Case C. 






16 


Case D, 






19 


Case E, . . . . 






20 


Case F, 






21 


Mr. Taine's Report on Ms own Child, 






24 


Mr. Darwin's Observations, 






32 


Mr. Champney's Report, .... 




/ 


41 


Dr. Preyer's Observations, . ... 






44 


Register of Infant Development, 






49-52 



iv CONSTITUTION. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE 
ASSOCIATION. 



I. This Society shall be called the American Social Science Associa- 
tion. 

II. Its objects shall be classified in five departments ; the first, of Educa- 
tion ; the second, of Health ; the third, of Trade and Finance ; the fourth, of 
Social Economy; the fifth, of Jurisprudence. 

III. It shall be administered by a President, as many honorary Vice- 
Presidents as may be chosen, a Treasurer, a Secretary, and a Council, 
charged whh general supervision ; five Department Committees, established 
by the Council, charged with the supervision of their respective Departments ; 
and such Local Committees as may be established by the Council at different 
points to serve as branch associations. The Council shall consist of the 
President, Treasurer, and Secretary, the Chairman and Secretary of each 
Department, and ten Directors, with power to fill vacancies and to make their 
own By-Laws. The .President, Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, Chairman, and 
Secretaries of Departments, and Directors, shall be chosen annually by mem- 
bers of the Association, and shall hold ofiice till their successors are chosen. 
The President, or in his absence, a Director, shall be Chairman of the Council. 
The Chairmen of the Local Committees shall be chosen at the pleasure of their 
respective committees. Whenever a Branch Association shall be organized 
and recognized as such by the Council, its President shall be ex-officio one of 
the Vice-Presidents of the American Association, and, together with the Sec- 
retary and Treasurer, shall be entitled to all the privileges of membership in 
that .Association. And whenever a Local Department shall-be organized and 
recognized as such by the Council, its Chairman shall become ex-officio a 
member of the parent Association. The Chairman and Secretary of each 
Department, with the consent of the Presidentof the Association, may appoint 
such special Department Committees as they may think best. The General 
Secretary shall be elected for three years, unless he resigns or is removed by 
a two-thirds vote of the members present and voting in a regular meeting of 
the Council ; and out of his compensation he may pay the salary of an Assist- 
ant Secretary, who may also be (Secretary of one Department. 

IV. Any person may become a member by paying five dollars, and may 
continue a member by paying annually such further sum as may be fixed at 
the Annual Meeting, not exceeding ten dollars. On payment of one hundred 
dollars, any person may become a life-member, exempt from assessments. 
Honorary and corresponding members may be elected, and exempted from the 
payment of assessments. 

V. The Council shall have sole power to call and conduct General Meet- 
ings, and to publish the Transactions and other documents of the Association. 
The Department Committee shall have power to call and conduct Department 
Meetings. 

VI. No amendment of this Constitution shall be made, except at an annual 
meeting, with public notice of the proposed amendments. 



Publications can be obtained and information had by addressing F. B. San- 
born, Concord, Mass. , or the Publishers for the Association, A.Williams & Co., 
Boston, and G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. 



PAPERS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. 



I. INFANT DEVELOPMENT. 

The most interesting topic considered by the Department of 
Education at the Saratoga meeting of 1881, was Infant Develop- 
ment, which will, therefore, be first presented in the Journal^ after 
Dr. Harris's opening address. 



THE EDUCATION OF THE FAMILY, AND THE EDUCATION OP 
THE SCHOOL. 

AN ADDRESS BT W. T. HABBIS, CHAIRMAN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCA- 
TION. 

The Department of Education, in the Social Science Associa- 
tion, has to consider education in general, and not to limit its view 
to education in the school alone.- It is an error frequently made, 
to demand of the school all kinds of education, — education for 
trades and business, education in religion, education in politics and 
statesmanship, education in habits which the nurture of the family 
should supply. 

Education, in the sense that social science uses the term, 
includes the whole life of man, in so far as the different institutions 
of human life react upon the individual and educate him. These 
institutions of civilization are the family, the social community, the 
State, the church. Each one of these gives a special kind of edu- 
cation to man which cannot be given by any of the others ; all 
education seeks to make the mere individual the possessor of the 
fruits of the labors and experience of the human race. The church 
is the highest educational institution, because it reveals the highest 
principle to man, — that of the creator of the world. In revealing 
this principle, it reveals the origin and destiny of the world, of 
nature, and of the world of man. If our religion were Buddhism 
or Brahminism, for instance, instead of Christianity, we should 
believe in a God without any form whatever, not even the form of 



2 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

consciousness or personality. A world could not be a revelation 
of such a formless God. The human mind could not be in the 
image of a formless God. If God is not personal, an infinite 
reason, an absolute fortn, then man cannot be immortal, but must 
be destro3'ed, and lost when he returns to the first principle. Under 
such an education as a religion of Pantheism teaches, there can be 
onlj' despotism in the State, slavery in the social community, and 
patriarchal rule in the family. But with the Christian ideal 
of a divine-human God there is all hope for the individual man. 
Christian civilization progresses toward the preservation and educa- 
tion of each individual. Each human being is an immortal soul 
infinitely precious to God, and institutions shall be established to 
reach out and bring within the influence of civilization all and each. 

Next after the church, the education of the State is all-important. 
The influence of the form of government, its laws, and the effici- 
ency of their execution, have a most powerful effect in forming the 
character of each citizen. What can school education do toward 
making a man of the citizen who is born under the blight of abso- 
lute despotism ? The education of the State would dwarf such an 
individual more than the school could cause him to grow. But under 
a free government, where each citizen is permitted to assist in making 
the laws, this education is very powerful toward building up self- 
respect and strong individuality. The school is not chargeable with 
the corruption in politics, where the political machinery is so loose 
that it encourages demagoguery by permitting partisan success to 
follow as a result of briber}' and fraud. Such a condition of things 
will corrupt the best young men who graduate from the school ; 
the school is helpless against the temptation which is offered at the 
hand of the State. 

Next in importance to the education of the State is that of the 
social community, or the business vocation of the individual. The 
business relation of man to his fellowmen continually educates the 
individual, and humanizes him or dehumanizes him, according as 
it is a rational employment or a brutish one. 

The education of the familj'- is of exceeding great importance. 
It furnishes the human being with his bundle of habits, his forms 
of behavior toward his superiors and equals ; his habits of personal 
cleanliness, of proper dress, of proper eating and drinking, and, 
in short, of the general conduct of life. It gives the child the 
knowledge of his native tongue, ideas of right and wrong. All 



EDUCATION OF THE FAMILY AND THE SCHOOL. 3 

other institutions presuppose in the child that he has learned these 
great fundamental lessons from family nurture. If he has been so 
unfortunate as to have missed the priceless blessings of family nurture, 
the other institutions can make very little of him. The State will 
be unable to permit him to exercise his liberty, because he lacks 
the habits which make him a safe person ; he has not put on the 
forms which are essential to the individual for life in a civilized 
community. The State confines him in a jail, therefore, because 
his period of nurture has been an education into hostility to social 
forms. 

The social community, with its industrial vocations, cannot receive 
the child who lacks family nurture ; for he lacks the sense of social 
propriety, has no respect for the rights of property-, is not honest 
nor truthful, and has no instinct for industry. The beggar is the 
symbol of the destruction of the social community. Even the 
school cannot compensate for the lack of family nurture. It can- 
not deal with the child who does not know language, nor can it 
take time to teach him all the personal habits he should know. 

The growth of a Christian civilization for two thousand years, is 
marked all the way along by an increase in the power to reach and 
elevate the mere individual into the full enjoj^ment of the products 
of the labor and of the results of the experience of mankind. It 
enables the individual to participate through trade and commerce 
in the productions of every clime, and to share likewise in the 
wisdom collected by all mankind in all times and places. This 
principle has taken care of the well-being of the individual in the 
church, the State, the social communitj'^, the school. 

The humblest individual is allowed, nay, encouraged, to partici- 
pate in the spiritual education of the church ; the State has become 
democratic, and admits him to the piivileges of self-government ; 
the social community' has emancipated him from serfdom, and 
permitted him to choose his vocation and thrive by it ; the school 
has come to his very door, and offered to every child its initiation 
into the wisdom of the race. But this Christian principle has not 
done so much for the education in the famil3^ It has not equal- 
ized conditions in the family to the extent that it has equalized 
conditions in the school, the social community, the State, and the 
church. In the family, poverty and wretchedness are allowed to 
tell on the nurture of the child, and sow in him evil seeds which 
will grow through all after life, in spite of whatever the other 



,4 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

institutions may do for him. The criminal parent ma}' bring up 
his offspring to vice. The ignorant parent may bring up his child- 
ren to manifold bad habits of person and conduct toward others, 
which will prove embarrassments in after-life. 

It is now the most beneficent effort in society that seeks to remedy 
the condition of the poor and ignorant, without depriving him of 
personal Kberty . Social science teaches that the interest of the high 
and that Of the low in society are one interest. No village can he 
healthy with a pestilential marsh adjoining it. No family, how- 
ever elevated by rank or wealth, can shut up itself within its 
palaces so securely that an ignorant and degraded population 
surrounding it will not create for it a pestilential atmosphere. The 
piece of carrion corrupts the air far and wide. Life is perpetual 
participation in the totality of one's conditions. It is a continual 
readjustment to one's environment. The interest of each is accord- 
ingly the interest of all. If we wish to attain well-being ourselves, 
we must see to the well-being of our neighbors. 

Social science is gradually concentrating its attention on this 
most important matter of family nurture. The problem is, how to 
assist the family without destroying its sacred privileges of privacy 
and self-management ; how to interfere without undermining indi- 
vidual freedom ; how to increase self-help instead of diminishing 
it. The first successful move in this direction is the study of the 
conditions of hygiene, and the provision for cleanliness, abundant 
pure air and pure water in the community. This is attended to by 
the department of health in our cities, — a recent institution, but 
one securing blessings to the family. 

Efforts are now being made to improve the homes of the 
poor, to secure cleanliness, good ventilation, separate apart- 
ments for the members of the family, suflBcient playground for 
children. These are great beginnings, but they are only begin- 
nings, and are indu'ect contributions to the education of the family. 
The noble woman who, as Secretary of this Department of Education, 
has inaugurated a system of inquiry into infant growth and devel- 
opment (Mrs. Emily Talbot, of Boston,) has undertaken an 
enterprise which promises very great effects in the direct pro- 
motion of the education of the family. She has devised a plan 
by which to interest the mother in her child's growth, and which 
will induce her to watch and record the steps of development in 
the unfolding of the faculties of the soul. 



INFANT DEVELOPMENT. — MES. TALBOT'S REPORT. 5 

It does not so much matter what the statistics will show, as it 
does matter that the mother shall learn to study the growth of her 
child, and learn what constitutes a stage of progress, and how to 
discover and remove obstacles to this growth, as well as to afford 
judicious aid to the child's efforts at mastering the use of his facul- 
ties. One intelligent woman who is interested in this subject will 
kindle an interest which will spread throughout an entire town. 
The wisdom gained through these observations will extend grad- 
ually to all families, and will elevate the character of infant educa- 
tion incalculably. 

When the mother becomes observant of the actions of the child 
as a matter of education, and when there comes to be a stock of 
generalized experiences on this subject, how much will be done 
toward correcting evil tendencies upon their first manifestation ! 
It is a trite remark, that the shaping of a tree is an easy affair if 
undertaken while it is a sapling, but impossible after the tree has 
attained its growth. The education that goes on within the family 
is the object which now calls with most importunity on us for our ■ 
attention as students of social science. 



REPOET OF THE SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT. 

That portion of Mrs. Talbot's Report having reference to the 
subject of Infant Development was as follows : 

The importance of making some systematic effort to record the 
development of infant life has occupied the thoughts of many 
people in various countries for a long period, and observations of 
isolated cases have been made, such as those by Mr. Alcott, on a 
group of children fifty years ago, in Penns3'lvania ; that by Taine, 
on the "Development of Language in a Young Child;" that by 
Charles Darwin, on the "Expression of the Emotions," and by 
Professor Preyer, on "Psychogenesis." In a more modest 
way, and from the impulse of strong parental feeling and curiosity, 
rather than from any deliberate intention of making a scientific 
investigation, mothers here and there, in this and other countries 
have kept a diarj^ of the physical and mental development of their 
children. It was suggested at the last General Meeting of this 
Association that in this field was a work which ought to be seriously 
undertaken, and tha't this Department should begin the diflScult 



6 AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION. 

task. The value of the suggestion was confirmed by discussion ; 
advice was sought from men of science and psychologists, gentle- 
men eminent in their specialties ; correspondence was opened with 
distinguished Europeans, and one result may be seen in a simple 
and concise register which, in the form of circulars and by reprints 
in many different newspapers in this country and in England, has 
reached tens of thousands of readers, and brought to this Depart- 
ment a wide and interesting correspondence. It is too soon to an- 
nounce results ; too soon to formulate any theory of the physical 
and mental development of children, but we are alreadjnn possession 
of interesting facts. We have hundreds of mothers engaged ; many 
of whom have been trained in our universities and colleges to make 
investigations with accuracy, and to weigh evidence with candor. 
With patience and perseverance we hope that this Department may 
soon make such progress in the collection of facts as to justify the 
attempt, that in the course of the next decade a continued series of 
observations, in large numbers, may reveal order in the variations 
of phenomena, and that some portion of the secret of the mental 
and physical development of infants may be discovered. The 
interesting communications from Mr. Darwin and Mr. Alcott here- 
with submitted, will illustrate what the Committee have aimed to 
do, which will also appear in detail from the Register itself appended 
to this report : 

Letter of Mr. Darwtn. 

Down, Beckenham, Kent, 
Railway Station, Orpington, S. E. R., 

July 19, 1881. 

Dear Madam : — In response to your wish, I have much pleasure 
in expressing the interest which I feel in your proposed investiga- 
tion on the mental and bodily development of infants. Very little 
is at present accurately known on this subject, and I believe that 
isolated observations will add but little to our knowledge ; whereas 
tabulated results from a very large number of observations, syste- 
matically made, would probably throw much light on the sequence 
and period of development of the several faculties. 

This knowledge would probably give a foundation for some 
improvement in our education of young children, and would show 
us whether the same system ought to be followed in all cases. 



SARATOGA MEETING. — LETTER OF MR. DARWIN. 7 

I ■will venture to specif}' a few points of enquiry which, as it 
seems to me, possess some scientific interest. For instance, does 
the education of the parents influence the mental powers of their 
children at anj' age, either at a veiy early or somewhat more 
advanced stage? This could, perhaps, be learned by schoolmasters 
or mistresses, if a large number of children were first classed 
according to age and their mental attainments, and afterward in 
accordance with the education of their parents, as far as this could 
be discovered. 

As observation is one of the earliest faculties developed in young 
children, and as this power would probably be exercised in an 
equal degree by the children of educated and uneducated persons, 
it seems not impossible that any transmitted effect from education 
could be displayed only at a somewhat advanced age. It would 
be desirable to test statistically in a similar manner the truth of 
the often-repeated statement that colored children at first learn as 
quickly as white children, but that they afterwards fall off in 
progress. If it could be proved that education acts not only on 
the individual, but by transmission on the race, this would be a 
' great encouragement to all working on this all-important subject* 

It is well known that children sometimes exhibit at a verj^ early 
age strong special tastes, for which no cause can be assigned^ 
although occasionally they may be accounted for by reversion to 
the taste or occupation of some progenitor ; and it would be inter- 
esting to learn how far such early tastes are persistent and influence 
the future career of the individual. In some instances such tastes 
die away without apparently leaving any after effect ; but it would 
be desirable to know how far this is commonly the case, as we 
should then know whether it were important to direct, as far as 
this is possible, the early tastes of our children. It may be more 
beneflcial that a child should follow enei»getically some pursuit, 
of however trifling a nature, and thus acquire perseverance, than 
that he should be turned from it, because of no future advantage 
to him. I will mention one other small point of inquiry in rela- 
tion to very young children, which may possibly prove important 
with respect to the origin of language ; but it could be investigated 
only by persons possessing an accurate musical ear. Children, 
even before they can articulate, express some of their feelings and' 
desires by noises uttered in different notes. For instance, they 
make an interrogative noise, and others of assent and dissent in' 



8 INTANT DEVELOPMENT. — MR. ALCOTT'S CHILD. 

different tones ; and it would, I think, Tbe worth while to ascertain 
whether there is any uniformity in different children in the pitch of 
their voices under various frames of mind. 

I fear that this letter can be of no use to you, but it will serve 
to show my sympathy and good wishes in your researches. 

I beg leave to remain, dear madam, yours faithful^, 

Charles Darwin. 

To Mks. Emilt Talbot. 



Mr. Alcott's Letter. 
Concord, Massachusetts, August 31, 1881. 
Professor W. T. Harris, Orchard House, Concord : 
Dear Sir : You ask me to give you some extracts from my notes 
on Infancy, taken during the earliest years of my children. The 
following are now submitted to your perusal. In copying 
them from my manuscripts I beg you will remember that (while 
they may gain in scientific clearness) they may lose some of the 
attractiveness you found in them, when read in connection with the 
reflections and inferences made at the time of writing. The psy- 
chology must remain for the present untouched, but, in copying for 
your use, I allowed myself to improve the phraseology, making an 
occasional tjhange for the sake of greater clearness. I confine 
myself to notes taken during the first three months of my eldest 
child's existence. 

NOTES FROM THE DIARY. 

March 16, 1831. — During the first days after birth she slept 
most of the time. As she gradually awoke and was exposed to 
the light, she opened her eyes as if intent on adjusting these for the 
purpose of seeing. Luminous objects particularly attracted her 
notice. While viewing these her hands moved instinctively, her 
arms were extended and drawn toward the mouth, which also ap- 
peared to be sensitive to the stimulus by frequent movements of 
the lips and tongue. 

Tenth day after birth. — Her features are daily assuming a more 
sensitive and mobile expressiveness. TO'daj^her attention was 
arrested by the contrasted colors of her mother's dress, and her 
attention was accompanied with a smile. She sleeps less, and is 
more observant (if I may say so) when awake. 



MR. ALCOTT'S LETTER. 9 

Fifteenth day. — I notice an increased power of the sense of 
sight. A watch was held before her till she caught the sight of it, 
and followed its motion with her eyes while moved in various 
directions. 

Twentieth day. — Her progress can be seen and marked daily, 
yet almost imperceptibly. Her existence is pleasurable, if the 
absence of crying, and her quiet moods, are trustworthy indica- 
tions. If any sense brings the greater delight, it appears to be 
the sight ; particularly when bright objects are placed at some 
distance they attract her notice. The morning hour, or the times 
of waking from her slumbers during the day, bring a freshness of 
perception. 

Twenty-fifth day. — Her hands, when she is awake, are kept in 
constant motion, and these motions are becoming daily more ener- 
getic and direct, as being brought under the control of the will. 

Thirtieth day. — When addressed, she turns towards the person 
speaking, as if eager to catch the tone of voice and distinguish the 
individuals ; and the periods of attention are more prolonged and 
frequent. I am unable to discover that she distinguishes particu- 
lars from generals, as yet ; or that recollection has dawned upon 
her, by which to discriminate one object from another. I imagine 
this belongs to a later stage of growth. Her progress has been 
chiefly indicated by longer-sustained efforts of attention to sounds, 
to form, and to motions, of which she appears to be already 
vaguely cognizant. Placed before a mirror to-day, she seemed for 
an instant to have caught the reflected image of herself and was 
lost in wonder at the vision, while this soon faded and itself be- 
came lost in the surrounding objects of the nursery. So the poet 
Shelley says : 

The babe 
In the dim nearness of its being feels 
The appulses of these sublunary things, 
And all is wonder to the unpracticed sense. 

Fortieth day. — Since the last record her progress has been 
marked and significant ; she listens to voices for some instants, 
and is attracted by the soft and suppressed tones ; violent notes 
displease her. Her hours of wakefulness become longer daily, 
and she fixes her attention for longer periods. She takes much 
satisfaction in looking from the window at objects and movements 
outside. She has not yet been taken out of doors. 



10 INFANT DEVELOPMENT. — ^ME. ALCOTT. 

Sixtieth dsiy. — A vase of flowers standing upon the mantelpiece 
attracted her notice, as she lay on her mother's lap, and she showed 
her pleasure at the sight by a smile. Her sleep seems mostly 
undisturbed and dreamless. Careful attention is paid to her dress, 
a disregard of this and of air and bathing, under a nurse, being 
avoided by the care which her mother gives. 

Sixty-ninth day. — Lying in her mother s lap to-day, she caught 
a glimpse of her mother's finger ring, set with ameth3-st, at which 
her pleasure was great, keeping her attention on it for several 
minutes. 

Seventy-seventh day. — While lying on the sofa she observed the 
varied colors of its cover ; the color of her dress also, which she 
attempted to seize and detain in her hands. She is now almost 
able to hold her head erect without other support. Six days ago, 
the emotion of terror was excited on beholding a distorted face 
(May 24) , and manifested by loud outcries ; she seeking protection 
from the face in her mother's arms. It was long before she was 
restored to her accustomed tranquility — the vision perhaps reap- 
peared in memory, haunted her fancy and brought tears to her 
eyes. 

Seventy-eighth day. — On being carried into the j^ard she seemed 
lost in wonder at the varied pleasure. The open mouth, hands 
motionless, eyes expanded, betrayed the new sensations. She has 
now obtained suflScient command over her hands to grasp objects 
presented and hold them at will. This affords her an apparent 
satisfaction. 

In closing, I transcribe a single reflection from the notes : 

How wonderful is the progress of infancy ; how involved in 
mystery ! Eepeated and successive acts of the senses precede the 
emergence of the indwelling mind into the light ; and all emotions 
of the mind are unlike the movements we note in matter. We 
cannot affirm of this, it is, as we hesitate not to affirm of that. 
Now this addition is to be made to it, and now that : now it is 
about exhibiting such and such specific modifications — new ele- 
ments are being intermingled ; now observe how it behaves ! But 
while we thus note the mind's mysterious operations as these move 
Ceaselessly and noiselessly on, behold ! ere we are aware, it has 
assumed new forms, unexpected changes occur, progress has been 
made, and the mind is. 

A. Bronson Alcott. 



AMERICAN CHILDREN. — CASE A. 11 

In the absence of Mrs. Talbot, Mr. Sanborn read at the Saratoga 
Meeting of 1881, the cases reported by Mrs. Talbot from her cor- 
respondence with fathers and mothers, previous to August last. 
Several of these cases, as presented, with remarks by Mrs. Talbot, 
are given below, and following them will be found the essays of 
M. Taine, Mr. Darwin and Mr. F. H. Champneys, who have made 
careful observations in France and England. Mrs. Talbot's cases, 
with one exception, are from the United States, — the exception 
being the child of a Dutch family at Delft. 



CASE A. 

In this case, the following observations and suggestions are of 
interest : 

The father of these children is a teacher. Both parents were 
born in New England, but at present reside in Virginia. One of 
the children was born in North Carolina, the other in Virginia. 
The interest of this observation seems to have centered upon the 
comparative development of the two children at the same age. 
The weight of No. 1 at birth was seven pounds ; of No. 2, eight 
and a quarter. At the age of six months, the weight of each child 
•was the same. No. 1 was nursed till he was sixteen months old, and 
liked fresh figs especially. No. 1 smiled when one day old. No. 2, 
when two days old. No. 1 sat alone on the floor when five months 
old. No. 2 is still too young for a comparison to be made on this 
point. No. 1 says "Titten" (Kitten) at 14 months. No. 2 
appeared sensible to sound three hours after birth, held up his 
head and followed a light with his eyes at three weeks, noticed its 
hand at five weeks, and held a plaything at six weeks. 

The mother writes to Mrs. Talbot, as follows : 

Alexandria, Va., July 11, 1881. 

Dear Madam : — You asked for suggestions, one or two of which 
I now make : 

a. It seems to me that a question or two in regard to the character 
of food, frequency of feeding, etc., might be valuable in this con- 
nection, as observation teaches me that the mental development 
is largely influenced by these, h. My own children, brought up " by 
rule," and neither they nor their parents using any form of stimu- 
lating food, do not develop as early as their cousins, not under 
the same treatment, but are both of them exceedingly rugged. 



12 INFANT DEVELOPMENT. 

Where in the series, whether first, second, or only child, is another 
determinative influence. My second child gives promise of excel- 
ling his sister because of her attention, example, etc. 

[I make a very incomplete account of this baby of three months.] 

c. The question as to the earliest exhibition of consciousness, 
seems to me a little ambiguous. Conscious of hunger, of the differ- 
ence between arms and the bed, certainly, — ^yet I doubt that being 
the meaning of the question. 

My first child, at five months, moving her finger over a play- 
thing, heard the scratching sound thereby occasioned, stopped and 
listened, repeating till she had evidently clearly established the 
relation between the motion and the sound. This I have been 
accustomed to consider her first intelligent act, yet she had long 
before learned to distinguish between her mother and other attend- 
ants. 

Medical works give six to ten hours as the earliest time at which 
hearing is possible, but my boy, born at 1.30, certainly heard, and 
nervously started at the sound of the cock crowing at 4.30. 

This mother has raised questions of great importance, which may 
well occupy the attention of our observers for a long period. The 
statement (a) that mental development may be influenced by the 
character of the food given, is a broad one, and will admit of 
experiment. The recorded experience of different parents on this 
subject of when and how to feed a young child, would be of great 
service. In the statement (b), this observer concludes that 
children brought up by rule, that is, fed regularly as to time and 
quantity, are thereby retarded in their mental growth ; a gain^ 
however, in physical strength is intimated. While considering 
this question of how to feed children, it is desirable that observers 
should read Pavy " On Food," or other authorities. Those who 
have already accepted the theory of " rule feeding," should recol- 
lect that an infant sometimes falls asleep before the needed 
amount of food is taken and will then fret for more before the 
appointed hour and thus, fatigued and faint,' not be in a condition 
to easily digest food when it is next taken. The influence of undue 
prejudices must be guarded against in making observations, and 
because overfeeding sometimes induces illness care must be taken 
not to follow the other extreme and weaken a plump-looking child 
by the too long continued use of milk and farinaceous pap. The 
significance of the first appearance of the teeth should be noted 
and how long their legitimate use may with wisdom be delayed. 
Idiosyncracies of taste and cravings will often be observed, and 



AMERICAN CHILDREN. — CASE B. 13 

may well be regarded. Because this tender being is human, a 
moderate degree of change in its surroundings, and of variety in its 
food may be found essential to its physical and mental health. To 
pass safely through illnesses and to endure exercise and moderate 
excitements without fatigue will be the best test of these experi- 
ments, concerning food. Under (c), this observer expresses doubt 
as to what is meant by the " earliest exhibition of consciousness." 
To throw more light on the growth of self -consciousness in young 
children from the parents' point of view, is one of ^he objects of 
these studies. " The subject has been examined and discussed by 
Prof. Preyer and Bernard Perez.* The children under con- 
sideration are peculiar from the fact that they were observed to 
smile the first days of their existence. The state of the subject 
under observation should be carefully considered in deciding upon 
a sign of development like that of the first smile. The facts con- 
nected with the delivery, if rapid and easy or slow and difficult, 
with development, whether perfect or imperfect, with the natural 
disposition, if it be merry or otherwise,— all these circumstances 
should be considered. 

It will .be noticed that these children were born in a more 
southern latitude than those of any other recorded cases which 
have been made public. It will be well to inquire whether this 
fact tends to hasten or retard development, or if any special result 
from such a circumstance is noticed by any observer. 



CASE B. 

A STUDY ON HEREDITARY TRAITS IN THE CASE OF C. W. S. 

(Madiaon, "Wisconsin, May 9, 1881.) 

It was the father's system to observe certain inherited traits or 
to seek for their exhibition. He did not come of a literary or 
voluble race. Neither the father nor mother of the child in question 
is fluent in speech. The father is rather reserved, silent, and is 
accused of sullenness, frequently, from distaste of exercising his 
vocal functions. He dislikes talk in others even to the extent of 
being prejudiced against lectures, preaching, society, and even sing- 
ing, except, in the latter case, singing that is scientific, so to speak. 
The mother does not talk much, thcTugh having no such prejudice 
against it in others, — preferring it, rather. It might be expected that 

*ZesTrois PremUres Anne6s de L' Infant. Patis, 1878. See ilfind f or Octobeii, 

1878. 



14 * INFANT DEVELOPMENT. 

the child would not show his intelligence mainly by fluency in artic- 
ulating words. It is the father's opinion that speech comes natural, 
without being taught. He has observed in this child a gradual 
increase of power in the exercise of the vocal organs with the 
gaining of the teeth, and the strengthening of the various muscles 
of the mouth and chest. He is surprised indeed to notice how loud 
a voice a child can produce, even a very young child, compared 
with young animals of other species. It is to be observed also 
that the child seems to take up at times a habit of amusing itself 
by making various tones, or producing varying inflections of the 
voice — a sort of sound like preaching heard at a distance, or a 
ranting like a poor actor, then a hallooing, and agaih, as at a year 
old, of sounds alternately high and low at short intervals, somewhat 
as a person learning to sing practices octaves. Although deficient 
in vocal tastes, the father has a perhaps exceptional facility in 
acquiring arts of manual dexterit3\ He plays readily on half a 
dozen musical instruments, violin, violoncello, flute, zither, piano, 
and, as secondary to these, the organ, which requires a different 
touch not so easily acquired by many good musicians. As a 
.musician he has had good instructors, and appreciates and per- 
forms music of Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Wagner, Berlioz, 
etc., and takes pleasure in the literature relating to this art. 
Naturally' a musician cannot be wholly either right or left handed. 
Both hands and arms must be developed. Therefore it was with 
some curiosity that the child was observed, whether he would show 
marked preference for either hand. He does not. He shows 
remarkable impartiality of hand, but still there is an implied exer- 
cise of the right, as in taking up his playthings and throwing them 
away when playing or tired of them. 

This might easily be inherited, for though a musical education 
would develop both hands, to paint and write and draw and other- 
wise use one hand would give that an added vigor which would have 
its influence. Then, too, in doing a certain thing, it is certainly a 
disadvantage to try to do it in different ways when its perfect doing 
is the result of repetition, and of acquiring habits, relating to 
unconscious action rather than a discipline. It is the difference 
between art and mere tentative attempting. 

It was the desire of the father to have the child show a preference 
for his own art, that of painting. Therefore he encouraged every 
implied turning towards this temperament. The wish of the child 
to be out of doors, his contented pleasure when there, his enjoy- 
ment in riding both in a baby wagon and in a buggy, seemed to 
imply that pleasure in nature which was desired. Tests were 
made to see if he distinguished tones, b}"- putting him upon the 
piano and playing softly, even from earliest days. It was, how- 
ever, very lately that he implied any recognition of musical tones, 
though he early gave notice of delicacy of hearing, yet seemed 
insensible to sounds like thunder, or cannons firing, for several 



AMERICAN CHILDREN. — CASE B. 15 

months. Now he has learned to understand tones of voice, and if 
told not to do a thing, understands it as a prohibition, though he 
may not obey, having, of course, no fear of punishment from dis- 
obeying ; therefore, he will sometimes scamper awa}- when he sees 
any one coming to interrupt his destructive employments. Destruc- 
tiveness seems prominentl3' displayed. His pleasure is to tear 
things, paper, strings ; a probably curable trait. 

When the violoncello is played, he likes to get up along side, 
often leaning against it ; not from love of music, but to be in the 
thick of the stir. He has to be watched lest he put things into the 
round holes, another of his traits. 

That there are retrograde days, and days of progression, seems 
evident. Some days he will learn half a dozen new tricks, then he 
may go for a month without trying anything. When he gets some 
^' new wrinkle," he is not satisfied unless he can be doing it all the 
time. When learning to bear his weight on his feet, he must be 
attempting it with wearisome pertinacity. I think such childish 
habits as squinting the eyes up, sticking the tongue out, putting 
the head one side or the other, or hiding it, playing " peep," or 
" pata cake," should be noticed as things easily to be dated. The 
pulling a handkerchief off his head and laughing heartily at it, 
occurred when but a few months old. 

Considerations as to facility with his fingers and hands should 
be noticed ; the power of picking up very small things, of putting 
a stick to a definite place, as through a hole, etc. 

That a child does most of his actions by inherited instinct seems 
to me most plausible. I think, as comparing children with dogs, 
that, aside from the physical condition, the inherited taste is first 
shown. Little puppies of a retriever breed will begin to take 
things hither and thither in their mouths long before puppies of an 
uneducated ancestry, though there will be a difference in talent 
and exceptions. In children, besides the natural self-assertion of 
a young child, there will continually crop out a hint of an inherited 
facility, which he uses without being taught. Then there is 
association. Having alwa3's seen a dog about, he has no fear of a 
dog, wants to pull him and roll about with him, does not fear the 
bark of a dog, though a little startled, if sharp ; but of horses he 
has fear, and a certain fascinated interest, — wants to know them, 
and 3'et is afraid. 

I throw out these suggestions without much thought of their 
proving particularly valuable, but in a belief that your list of 
questions would, in a scientific sense, be made more valuable if 
extended to individual qualities, to determine exactly what is 
natural to all children, what peculiar to the exceptionally intelli- 
gent, and what is the result of heredity and association. 

The child above described by his father was born April 14, 1880 ; 
his parents were Iborn respectively in Ohio in 1840, and in Minne- 



16 INFANT DEVELOPMENT. 

sota in 1851. He weighed 8^ pounds at birth, 14 at three months 
old, and 21 at a year old, when also he was 29 J inches in height, 
and was strong and healthy. He smiled at five weeks (?), exhib- 
ited consciousness at eleven weeks, noticed pain at two weeks, 
noticed the light before eight weeks ; could creep at ten months, 
and stand alone at twelve months. 



CASE C. 
AsHBURNHAM, Mass., July 18, 1881. 

The children are twin boys, born June 5, 1881 ; the elder weighed 
7 pounds, the younger 6, at birth. The elder had a thick, round 
head, plenty of dark hair, was stupid and sleepy ; the younger had 
a head narrow and high, long from front to back, with no hair ; 
he was active, with eyes wide open and restless ; his mouth open 
and moving for food from the first. The elder seemed considera- 
bly the most mature. He recognized the light of a window (evi- 
dently) at the age of 20 hours, — as he was looking at it he was 
turned round so as to bring the other side towards the window, 
and at once turned his head towards it. He recognized sounds in 
a day or two. The younger recognized light and sound in the 
same way a day or two later, — in general he was a little later in 
all his developments. 

June 15. — (Ten days old.) Both evidently noticed a piano 
played in another room, — stopped their incessant baby motions to 
listen, and put on the same listening look as adults do. This was 
repeated for a day or two, at times when the piano was played ; 
but afterwards as the sound grew familiar they ceased to notice it. 

June 25. — (Twenty days old.) Both lift their heads strongly, 
but cannot hold them up, — the elder, as usual, a day or two ahead. 
Between the third and fourth weeks they are beginning to fix their 
eyes on objects as distinct. The elder clearly looked at me as I 
talked to him, and also at a hand moved in front of him. Neither 
can yet follow an object, or knows which way to turn for a sound. 
They look at any one speaking, as yet, only occasionally and for 
a moment. They wink at a sudden sound, but not at a hand 
struck close to the eye. The nurse can wash through the eye at 
first, or throw water in it without their closing it. Tapping them 
all round the eye within half an inch of it, thej'' do not move till 
the taps reach the nose near the inner angle, when they partially 
wink. They spring at sudden sounds, as of a door shutting. 

July 2. — (Twenty-seven days.) The mother and babes moved 
to a new room down stairs. They looked round in wonder, stared 
evidently, in their new quarters. This soon ceased, in the main, 
so far as their new room was concerned, but is renewed when they 
are carried about. 



AMERICAN CHILDREN. — CASE C. 17 

July 4. — The bells and firing woke them rather early, and the 
younger soon grew nervous, so as to spring and throw up his 
hands at the explosion of a fire-cracker or other noise. This sub- 
sided as the morning clangor died away. 

July 7-9. — (Fifth to sixth week.) They fix their eyes sharply 
on an object moving, or a person speaking, close in front bf them. 
They begin to take evident pleasure in being talked to, drawing 
towards a smile occasionally when plaj^ed with. Thej' begin occa- 
sionally to turn their heads a little towards voices quite near, — 
that is, there seems to be the first dawn of an intelligent motion ; 
mostly, however, mere aimless turuing as yet. Their eyes, in 
their incessant rolling, usually move together, but not unfrequently 
they turn different ways, generallj' inwards ; that is they look 
cross-eyed. This was not noticeable for the first three or four 
weeks, but evidenth^ comes from the child's ill control of his mus- 
cles, now that he has gained the power, and attempts to look at 
objects definitel}'. 

July 12-15. — The eldest has now no diflflculty in looking at a 
person speaking to him, or at a near moving object, when directly 
in front of him. He evidentlj' sees a person moving at a distance 
of 8 or 10 feet ; the younger cannot do this yet. The elder now 
for a few days manifests pleasure in being talked or sung to, his 
face beaming, his arms striking out more vigorously, and himself 
often springing up towards the speaker. He looks at our faces 
now, with an intelhgent look. The younger manifests all this in a 
less degree ; that is, he traverses the same ground a few days later. 
The 3'ounger likes to be "cuddled" best; the elder has more of 
the " go it alone." Four or five of us are tending them, off and 
on, during the day, so that neither as yet seems to know the 
mother or any one in particular. If there is any special recogni- 
tion it is occasionally of the housemaid, who comes in and sits 
with them while the family are at meals, — it does not amount to 
recognition, but to manifest liking of her voice and manner. They 
plainly know, as they lie on their mother's arm, her motion of pre- 
paring to nurse them, and change their hungry crying to an impa- 
tient brooding noise. 

A singular thing was remarked by the nurse when she first un- 
dressed them (2d daj^) , and has been noticeable ever since. As she 
expressed it, they " seemed to be afraid of falling to pieces." As 
the}'' are being washed, and are turned over or raised or lowered, 
they clutch with their hands, spring, catch their breath, etc., pre- 
cisely as if afraid of falling. This was very slight at first, but 
increases. The youngest, who is most nervous, shows it most. 
Both manifest this occasionallj^ when dressed, but in a less degree. 
The younger shows the same feeling on being swung on the hands, 
and does not like it ; while the elder enjoys the motion, and will 
often go to sleep that way. This fear of falling was not noticed 
when they were dressed for the first two or three weeks, — I doubt 
2 



18 INFANT DEVELOPMENT. 

if it was shown, for I several times looked for it. It evidently 
grows on them. 

The most remarkable thing that I have watched so far has been 
the development of the smile. A baby does not smile or do any 
thing else /or the first time. That is, nothing is clearly marked at 
first. The smile begins when the infant first begins to be conscious 
of outside things ; attention gradually becomes closer, more fixed ; 
the smile at this stage is the mere stare, vacant at first, but grow- 
ing steadily more intelligent and wondering in its appearance. 
About the third week this begins to relax very slightly into the ap- 
pearance of pleasure. At this point there comes first more and 
more of a glow on the face, — a beaming — then in a day or two a 
very slight relaxation of the muscles, increasing every day. Now 
— July 16-18 (sixth week), this is very noticeable in the elder,— 
his look of intelligence, of pleasure, of a dawning smile, is often 
very beautiful, but it is not as yet a smile. The younger is yet in 
the wondering, beaming, slightly pleasurable stage ; he shows his 
satisfaction by pushing out his eyes and pursing of his mouth as if 
to whistle. The look (at this stage) in both may be described as 
one of satisfaction — self-satisfaction — rather than of pleasure. 
The smile is just now incipient, just beginning, in the younger, 
and well-nigh developed, almost a smile, in the elder. But I am 
confident no one will ever know the exact day when the baby fairly 
and intelligently for the first time smiles. 

(At a later date — Nov. 2, 1881.) There are some other items 
which I was not prepared to insert at the former time of writing. 
For instance, m}" wife insisted from the first that the bo3'S were 
strikingly " marked" from the two pictures hanging in my library. 
The resemblance was indeed startling at first sight, but I was de- 
sirous of confirming it by more careful thought. The pictures 
were of Agassiz and Horace Mann, as unlike as could well be im- 
agined. But there can be no question whatever that the elder boy 
had the features, expression, hair, short neck, etc., of Agassiz, — 
while the younger had the thin hair, sickly eyes, etc., of Mann's 
picture. The hair on Agassiz's head is parted on the right, and 
falls over to the left, giving the right a bald appearance. The 
babe has exactly this baldness, the hair growing an inch farther 
forward on the left side than on the right ! The resemblance in 
the elder still continues (and ma}' it ever, mentally and morally !) 
but the 3^ounger has mainly outgrown bis resemblance to the other 
picture, — though my wife insists that the resemblance is only ob- 
scured, and will reappear when the baby plumpness passes away. 

Another thing that has interested me has been the change in the 
head of the younger as indicated by the rough diagram enclosed. 
From being a little, weak, thin-headed baby, he has grown a 
strong, fat, round-headed boy. 

But I weary you. I am so pressed with work that I have very 
little time to make observations, and still less to record them. But 



DUTCH CHILDREN. — CASE D. 19 

the subject is very interesting and full of instruction, though so 
much beyond our reach. 



CASE D. 

(Delft, Holland, 1877-81.) 
The following study is of special interest from the facts that the 
birthplace of the subject is quite remote, the food on which the 
child was nourished in infancy is unlike that usually provided for 
young children in America, and he has been from birth and is still 
under careful observation by competent parents. The father is a 
native of The Hague, and is a doctor of science and professor of 
chemistry. The mother was born in Alkmaar ; she is proficient 
in several languages, in literature and in music. They now reside 
in Delft, Holland, where the boy was born in January, 1877. He 
weighed at birth 8^ pounds, at 2^ years 33 pounds, at 4 years 44 
pounds. During the first three weeks he slept 19 hours out of the 
24. He laughed for the first time, but unconsciously, at the age 
of 3 weeks ; and smiled wittingly in the 7th week. He followed a 
light with his eyes in the 6th week, held up his head in the 3d 
month, and cut two teeth in the 4th month. At the same age he 
held objects firml}^ in his right hand, and could also throw them 
with force. He had natural nourishment till 6 weeks old, then 
Liebig's food for infants was added till 3 months old, and after, that 
was the only food, when milk was given up. At present he likes all 
kinds of food, except butter, cheese and vinegar, but prefers 
bread, milk, and meat. At 6^ months he began to say ada^ aida, 
jaja; at 9 months he said papa and mamma. At 21 months he 
could talk very well, and had an excellent memory ; he could also 
sing correctly. At 20 months he could recite several little verses, 
and knew the letters of the alphabet, both large and small ; he 
could also point out and name all the parts of the body. At 22 
months he first spoke of "me" as a personality ; he also knew the 
different colors. At 2 J years he could sing several songs with 
only the aid of the piano. His body is large and strong and his 
head well formed. It has always been difficult for him to pro- 
nounce the letter I and is still. He is now, at the age of 4 years, 
learning to play the piano. He has a very clear and sweet singing 
voice, and readily takes an octave either above or below any pitch 
given him. 



20 INFANT DEVELOPMENT. 

A full diary of the development of this boy to the present time 
is at the disposal of the Committee should they desire it. 

It is desirable to know more about the kinds of food given to 
very young children in Holland. Possibly the experience of 
another 3'ear will furnish further information on the subject. Dur- 
ing the past summer a party of physicians staying in Rotterdam 
were greatly impressed with the clean, healthy and happy appear- 
ance of the childi'en in the streets. Although a commercial town, 
and subject as other seaports are to a low moral influence, which 
is soon made manifest in the neglect and squalor of the young, 
nothing of the sort is to be seen in Rotterdam. The bright ejes 
and rosy cheeks of the infants tempted an inquiry of the parents 
as to their method of caring for their children. A daily bath, 
lightly boiled cold eggs morning and night, meat at. noon, and all 
the bread and milk they desired in addition, was said to be the 
" custom " in Rotterdam. If this is correct, how far through Hol- 
land does it prevail? and how far is the same custom followed 
in other countries ? A corqparative study of some of the results of 
this manner of feeding the young, and of a milk and farinaceous 
diet would be of great value. 



CASE E. 

"Waterville, Maine. 

Another comparative case is submitted, that of two boys, both 
of whom were born in Connecticut, together with their parents. 

No. 1, at 8 weeks, " tries to smile ;" No 2, at 8 weeks, " smiles 
beautifully." Both held up their heads at birth ; this was remarked 
by several persons. No. 1 sat alone on the floor at 8 months, 
No. 2 at 5J mouths. No. 1 stood alone at ^4 months ; No. 2 
stood alone in the middle of the floor at 10 months, and waved a 
wooden dumb bell. No. 1, at 1 year, could utter syllables, but no 
words. No. 2 could speak, at the same age, four words of his 
own, and imitate everything. At 15 months No. 1 could say a 
very few words ; No. 2 everything, but verbs were given in the 
imperative. At 2 years old No. 1 talked exactly as No. 2 did at 
18 months ; while No. 2 was a perfect chatterbox. The weight of 
No. 2 at 2 years was 36 pounds, height 37 inches. The weight 
and height of No. 1 is not given when at the same age. It will 



AMERICAN CHILDREN. — CASES E AND F. 21 

be seen in the following remarks made by the mother of these 
children, that the influence of the power of imitation has attracted 
her particular attention. 

June 3, 1881. — I have kept records, but have concerned myself 
more with the relative development than the absolute time of the 
appearance of a-ny new phenomena, and the dates are not those of 
the first time an act was noticed, but such time as the habit was 
well formed. (I think I was afraid of a mother's partiality !) I 
have, therefore, put down only so much as I found absolutel}' 
stated, and have put the two children together, that you may see 
how much ahead (mi time) No. 2 is of No. 1, in walking and talk- 
ing. I am curious to know if that is not apt to be the case. I 
have noticed A^ery many things in which the children imitate each 
other, and they never talk very much alike. No. 2 had No. 1 to 
imitate, while No. 1 had no child to copy after. I put their height 
in answer to " strong and healthy?" because growth in that direc- 
tion seems to me as important as that in weight. My children are 
not at all precocious., but 1 am rather proud of their phj'-sical devel- 
opment, — striving for mens sana in corpore sano. I have partic- 
ularly desired to investigate the lingual development (order of parts 
of speech, &c.), as an indication of character, and last winter went 
so far as to prepare a circular to forward to my Vassar friends, 
but was prevented b}' sickness and removal to this place. I shall, 
therefore, look with great eagerness for results which may come 
through this attempt of the Social Science Association, and shall 
be glad if you will send me anything you may publish pertaining 
to the subject. I should vote that an enquiry be made into the 
' ' occupation " of the mother as well as of the father. RufHes 
and frills versus ' ' cultivation of brains " for instance — will it not 
make a difference in the weight of the baby ? I think it does. I 
don't feel satisfied with Dr. Preyer's suggestion that fathers should 
take up this matter. Scientific observation of the baby ought to 
be the mother's compensation for the tedious routine of her daily 
duties. 



CASE F. 

M. Gr. D., born in Rockingham County, Virginia, Feb. 25, 
1881, is the daughter of parents of more than common attain- 
ments. The mother, who has displayed great skill and success in 
developing the faculties of her family of seven children, from the 
first week of their existence, pays much attention to the formation 
of their habits. She is much opposed to corporeal, or any other 
severe punishment. This infant was strong and large at birth, 
and at 4 months weighed 17J pounds. She noticed the prick of a 



22 INFANT DEVELOPMENT. 

pin when 2 daj's old ; when three weeks old she smiled ; at 10 
weeks she held up her head, and reached out and took a plaything 
at 12 weeks. The mother writes to the Committee as follows : 

This baby is now four months old, and is thought by all to be a 
reraai-kably fine child. She is very large, sits up boldly when held 
on the arm, and shows evident preference for some members of 
the family ; fretting to be taken by her father, who always carries 
her to the open air, and shows her little dogs and other pets. 
When sleepy or hungry, she frets to be taken by her mother, 
though at other times quite willing to be in the room with me, and 
carried by the nurse and older children. She has one tooth, a 
very unusual thing I think, for I never saw a child who had any 
teeth before six months, nor generaUy before eight, except one of 
my other children, a little girl now seven years old, who also had 
two teeth at four months. The baby resembles this little sister in 
phj'sique, development, features, and color of hair, but not of the 
eyes. The little girl mentioned spoke nine words plainly at nine 
months of age. This we noticed at the time, as her father was 
reading the life of a Lord High Chancellor of England, an ances- 
tor of the baby, and drew my attention to the fact that the mother 
of the distinguished jurist had mentioned in letters to friends that 
at eight months he could pronounce several words quite plainly. 
The fact of the relationship might have no psychological signifi- 
cance, being eight degrees removed, but that the same ancestor 
stands in equal degree of relationship to both father and mother 
of this child's father, and that there have been several marriages 
of cousins intervening. 

Children vary greatly in the development of strength as well as 
sense. One of my boys at the age of 16 months could not speak 
a word or walk a step, but at his present age, 14 years and 1 week, 
he measures 5 feet 8 inches, and can walk 20 miles in a day. 

I had supposed, from my experience with this boy, that girls 
developed more rapidly than boys, but a little boy 2^ years old 
was a precocious child, walking before he was a year old, and 
learning little hymns and songs when 16 months old. He also 
shows great powers of observation, as noticed by us all one day 
when he was about 28 months old. Several older members of the 
family were commenting upon the improved appearance of a cow 
which we had bought a few months before, looking at the time at 
an animal supposed to be the cow mentioned. Little Willie looked 
out of the window an instant and exclaimed, " dat is not our tow, 
dat is Mrs. Paul's tow in our yard," — which proved to be the fact. 
Both cows were red with white spots, and had crumpled horns. 
This little boy, when less than 2 years old, would tell visitors 
accurately the pedigrees, for several removes, of the horses whose 
pictures his father has hung up about the house. This faculty, as 
well as his acute observation of animals, is a direct inheritance 



AMERICAN CHILDREN. — CASE F. 23 

from his father and paternal grandfather, both of whom had an 
impression that " blood is thicker than water," and were enthusi- 
asts in genealogies and pedigrees (English characteristics), as 
well as " ph3'sical perfectionists." 

One of the advantages ladies of the South can see in their 
adversity, which certainly seems at times " like the toad, ugly and 
venomous," is, that being deprived of the faithful "mammys" 
who guarded their own infancy, they are obliged to keep their 
little ones more under their own care, and can see that the senses, 
so early and keenly alive to impressions, shall have such care as 
will train and lead them in the right direction. This is a subject 
in which I feel great interest, for I think few mothers are aware 
how early children can be trained to habits of neatness, truth, 
love, etc. 



The Committee have received notes of many other cases, which 
will be presented hereafter ; but the above examples will be 
sufficient to indicate the character and variety of the observations 
reported to the Department Committee, in response to Mrs. 
Talbot's Circular. It will be understood that the Committee dis- 
claim all responsibility for the sentiments expressed by the writers 
of the various reports, which often indicate the influences under 
which the child is developed. The Register will be given on pages 
51-52. 



24" , INFANT DEVELOPMENT; M. TAINE. 



M. HIPPOLYTE TAINE'S PAPER ON INFANT DEVELOPMENT. 
(Reprinted from Mind, April, 1877, No. VI., p. 252.) 

The following observations were made from time to time, and 
written down on the spot. The subject of them was a little girl 
whose development was ordinary, neither precocious nor slow. 

From the first hour, probably from reflex action, she cried 
incessantly, kicked about and moved all her limbs, and perhaps 
all her muscles. In the first week, no doubt also by reflex action, 
she moved her fingers, and even grasped for some time, one's 
fore-finger when given her. About the third month she begins to 
feel with her hands and to stretch out her arms, but she cannot 
yet direct her hand ; she touches and moves at random ; she tries 
the movements of her arms and the tactile and muscular sensations 
which follow from them, — nothing more. In my opinion it is out of 
this enormous number of movements, constantly essayed, that 
there will be gradually evolved by gradual selection the intentional 
movements having an object and attaining it. In the last fortnight 
(at two and a half months) , I make sure of one that is evidently 
acquired ; hearing her grandmother's voice she turns her head to 
the, side from which it comes. There is the same spontaneous 
apprenticeship for cries as for movements. The progress of the 
vocal organs goes on just like that of the limbs ; the child learns 
to emit this or that sound, as it learns to turn its head or its eyes, 
that is to say, by groping'^s and constant attempts. 

At about three and a half months, in the country, she was put 
on a carpet in the garden ; there lying on her back or stomach for 
hours together, she keeps moving about her four limbs, and utter- 
ing a number of cries and diiferent exclamations, but vowels only, 
no consonants ; this continued for several months. By degrees 
consonants were added to vowels, and the exclamations became 
more and more articulate. It all ended in a very distinct sort of 
twittering, which would last a quarter of an hour at a time, and 
be repeated ten times a day. The sounds (both vowels and con- 
sonants) , at first very vague and difficult to catch, approached 
more and more nearly to those we pronounce, and the series of 
simple cries came almost to resemble a foreign language that we 
could not understand. She takes delight in her twitter like a bird ; 
she seems to smile with joy over it, but as yet it is only the twittering 
of a bird, for she attaches no meaning to the sounds she utters. 
She has learned only the materials of language. (Twelve months.) 
She has acquired the greater part quite by herself, the rest thanks to 
the help of others and by imitation. She first made the sound 
mm spontaneously by blowing noisily with closed lips. This 
amused her, and was a discovery to her. In the same way she 
made another sound, Tcraaau, pronounced from the throat in deep 



A FRENCH CHILD. M. TAINE. 25 

gntterals ; this was her own invention, accidental and fleeting. 
The two noises were repeated before her several times ; she 
listened attentively and then came to make them immediately she 
heard them. In the same way with the sound papapapa, which 
she said several times by chance and of her own accord, which 
was then repeated to her a hundred times to fix it in her memory, 
and which in the end she said voluntarily, with a sure and easy 
execution (always without understanding its meaning), as if it 
were a mere sound that she liked t6 make. In short, example and 
education were only of use in calling her attention to the sounds 
that she had already found out for herself, in calling forth their 
rei^etition and perfection, in directing her preference to them, and 
making them emerge and survive amid the crowd of similar sounds. 
But all the initiative belongs to her. The same is true of her 
gestures. For many months she has spontaneously attempted all 
kinds of movements of her arms, the bending of the hands over 
the wrist, the bringing together of the hands, etc. Then after 
being shown the wa}^, and with repeated trials, she has learned to 
clap her hands to the sound bravo, and to turn her hands regularly 
to the strain au hois Joliette, etc. Example, instruction and educa- 
tion are only directing channels, the source is higher. To be sure 
of this it is enough to listen for a while to her twitter. Its flexi- 
bility is surprising, I am persuaded that all the shades of emotion, 
— wonder, joy, wilfulness and sadness, — are expressed by differ- 
ences of tone ; in this she equals or even surpasses a grown-up 
person. If I compare her to animals, even to those most gifted in 
this respect (the dog, the parrot, singing-birds) , I find that with a 
less extended gamut of sound, she far surpasses them in the delicacy 
and abundance of her expressive intonations. Delicacy of impres- 
sions and delicacy of expressions are, in fact, the distinctive char- 
acteristics of man among animals, and as I have shown {De 
V Intelligence I. b. i.) are the source in him of language and of general 
ideas ; he is among them what a great and fine poet — Heine or 
Shakespeare — would be among workmen and peasants ; in a word, 
man is sensible of innumerable shades, or rather of a whole order 
of shades which escape them. 

The same thing is seen, besides, in the kind and degree of his 
curiosity. Any one may observe that from the fifth or sixth month 
children employ their whole time, f@r two years and more, in mak- 
ing physical experiments. No animal, not even the cat or dog, 
makes this constant study of all bodies within its reach ; all day 
long the child of whom I speak (at twelve months), touches, feels, 
turns round, lets drop, tastes and experiments upon everything 
she gets hold of; whatever it may be, ball, doll, coral or plaything 
when once it is sufficiently known it is thrown aside ; it is no longer 
new, she has nothing to learn from it, and has no farther interest 
in it. It is pure curiosity ; physical need, greediness count for 
nothing in the case ; it seems as if already in her little brain every 



26 INFANT DEVELOPMENT. M. TAINE. 

group of perceptions was tending to complete itself, as in that of a 
child who makes use of language. 

As yet she attaches no meaning to any word she utters, but 
there are two or three words to which she attaches meaning when she 
hears them. She sees her grandfather every day, and a chalk 
portrait of him, much smaller than life, but a very good likeness, 
has been often shown her. From about ten months, when asked 
" Where is grandfather ?" she turns to this portrait and laughs. 
Before the portrait of her grandmother, not so good a likeness, she 
makes no such gesture, and gives no sign of intelligence. From 
eleven months when asked "Where is mamma?" she turns towards 
her mother, and she does the same for her father. I should not 
venture to say that these three actions surpass the intelligence of 
animals. A little dog, here, understands as well when it hears the 
word, sugar; it comes from the other end of the gjjrden to get a 
bit. There is nothing more in this than an association, for the 
dog, between a sound and some sensation of taste, for the child 
between a sound and the form of an individual face perceived ; the 
object denoted by the sound has not as yet a general character. 
However, I believe that the step was made at twelve months ; here 
is a fact decisive in my opinion. This winter she was carried every 
day to her grandmother's, who often showed her a painted copy 
b}^ Luini of the Infant Jesus naked, saying at the same time "there's 
behe." A week ago, in another room, when she was asked " where's 
Mbef" meaning herself, she turned at once to the pictures and 
engravings that happened to be there. B4bi has then a general 
signification for her, namely, whatever she thinks is common to 
all pictures and engravings of figures and landscapes ; that is to 
say, if I am not mistaken, something variegated in a shining frame. 
In fact, it is clear that the objects painted or drawn in the frame 
are as Greek to her ; on the other hand, the bright square enclos- 
ing any representation must have struck her. This is her first 
general word. The meaning that she gives it is not what we give 
it, but it is only the better fitted for showing the original work of 
infantile intelligence. For if we supplied the word, we did not 
supply the meaning ; the general character which we wished to 
make the child catch, is not that which she has chosen. She 
caught another, suited to her mental state, for which we have no 
precise word. 

(Fourteen months and three weeks.) The acquisitions of 
the last six weeks have been considerable ; she understands 
several more woi'ds besides beb4, and there are five or six that 
she uses attaching meaning to them. To the simple warbling, 
which was nothing but a succession of vocal gestures, the begin- 
ings of intentional and determinate language have succeeded. 
The principal words she at present utters, are papa^ mama, 
tete (nurse) oua-oua (dog), ko-ko (chicken), dada (horse, or 
carriage), mia (cat, puss), kaka and tern; the two first were 



A FRENCH CHILD. — M. TAINE. 27 

papa and tern, this last word very curious, and worth the attention 
of the observer. Papa was pronounced for more than a fortnight 
unintentionally and without meaning, as a mere twitter, an easy 
and amusing articulation. It was later that the association 
between the word and the image, or perception of the object was 
fixed, that the image or perception of her father called to her lips 
the sound papa, that the word uttered by another definitely and 
regularly called up in her the remembrance, image, and expectation 
of and search for her father. There was an insensible transition 
from the one state to the other, which it is difficult to unravel. The 
first state still returns at certain times though the second is 
established ; she still sometimes plays with the sound, though she 
understands its meaning. This is seen in her later words, for 
instance, in the word kdka. To the great displeasure of her 
mother, she still often repeats this ten times in succession, without 
purpose or meaning, as an interesting vocal exercise, and to exer- 
cise a new faculty ; but she often also saj^s it with a purpose when 
there is occasion. Further, it is plain that she has changed or 
enlarged its meaning, as with the word hehe; for instance, yester- 
day in the garden, seeing two little wet places left by the watering- 
pot on the gravel, she said her word with an evident meaning ; she 
meant by it whatever wets. 

She makes imitative sounds with great ease. She has seen and 
heard chickens, and repeats 'koko, much more exactly than we can 
do, with the gutteral intonations of the creatures themselves. This 
is only a faculty of thie throat ; there is another much more striking, 
which is the specially human gift, and which shows itself in twenty 
ways, I mean the aptitude for seizing analogies — the source of 
general ideas and of language. She was shown birds two inches 
long, painted red and blue on the walls of a room, and was told 
once " there are kokos." She was at once sensible of the resem- 
blance, and for half a day her great pleasure was to be carried 
along the walls of the room crying out koko I with joy at each fresh 
bird. No dog or parrot would have done as much ; in my opinion, 
we come here on the essence of language. Other analogies are 
seized with the same ease. She was in the habit of seeing a little 
black dog belonging to the house, which often barks, and it was to 
it she first learned to apply the word oua-oua. Very quickly, and 
with very little help, she applied it to dogs, of all shapes and kinds 
that she saw in the streets, and then, what is still more remarkable, 
to the bronze dogs near the stair-case. Better still, the day before 
yesterday, when she saw a goat a month old that bleated, she said 
oua-oua, calling it by the name of the dog, which it is much like 
in form, and not by that of the horse which is too big, or of the 
cat which has quite a diflTerent gait. This is the distinctive trait of 
man ; two successive impressions, though very unlike, yet leave a 
common residue, which is a distinct impression, solicitation, im- 
Ipulse, of which the final effect is some expression invented or sug- 
gested ; that is to say, some gesture, cry, articulation, name. 



28 INFANT DEVELOPMENT. M. TAINE. 

I now come to the word iem, one of the most remarkable, and 
one of the first she uttered. All the others were probably attribu- 
tives, and those who heard them had no difficulty in understanding 
them ; this is probably a demonstrative word ; and as there was 
no other into which it could be translated, it took several weeks to 
make out its meaning. At first, and for more than a fortnight, 
the child uttered the word iem, as she did the yvord papa, without 
giving it a precise meaning, like a simple twitter. She made a 
dental articulation ending with a labial articulation, and was 
amused by it. Little b}' little she associated this word with a 
distinct intention ; it now signifies for her, give, take, look; in fact, 
she says it very decidedly several times together, in an urgent 
fashion, sometimes that she may have some new object that she 
sees, sometimes to get us to take it, sometimes to draw attention 
to herself. All these meanings are mixed up in the word tern. 
Perhaps it comes from the word tiens that is often used to her, and 
with something of the same meaning. But it seems to me rather 
a word that she has created spontaneously, a sympathetic articula- 
tion that she herself has found in harmony with all fixed and dis- 
tinct intention, and which, consequentl}", is associated with her 
principal fixed and distinct intentions, which at present are desires 
to take, to have, to make others take, to look, to make others 
look. In this case, it is a,' natural vocal gesture, not learned, and 
at the same time imperative and demonstrative, since it expresses 
both command and the presence of the object to which the com- 
mand refers ; the dental t and the labial m united in a short, dry, 
and quickly stified sound, correspond rery well without convention, 
and b}' their nature alone, to this start of attention, to this sharp 
and decided outbreak of volition. This origin is the more probable 
because other and later words, of which we shall presently speak, 
are evidently the work, not of imitation but of invention, 

(From the 15th to the 17th month.) Great progress. She has 
learned to walk, and even to run, and is firm on her little legs. 
We see her gaining ideas every day, and she understands many 
phrases, for instance : " bring the ball," " come to papa's knee," 
"go down," "come here," etc. She begins to distinguish the 
tone of displeasure from that of satisfaction, and leaves off doing 
what is forbidden her with a grave face and voice ; she often wants 
to be kissed, holding up her face and saying in a coaxing voice, 
papa or mama, — but she has learned or invented very few new 
words. The chief are Pa (Paul) , Bahert (Gilbert) , hehe (baby) , 
teee (goat) , cola (chocolate) ouoroua (anything good to eat) , ham 
(eat, I want to eat). There are a good many others that she 
understands but cannot say, — ifor instance, grand-pere and grand- 
mh-e, — her vocal organs having been too little exercised to pro- 
duce all the sounds that she knows, and to which she attaches 
meaning. Cola (chocolate) is one of the first sweetmeats that 
was given her, and it is the one she likes the best. She went 



A FRENCH CHILD. — M. TAINE. 29 

ever}^ day to her grandmother's, who would give her a lozenge. 
She knows the box ver}^ well, and keeps on pointing to it to have 
it opened. Of herself and without, or rather in spite of us, she 
has extended the meaning of the word and applies it now to any- 
thing sweet ; she saj-s cola when sugar, a tart, a grape, a peach, 
or a fig is given her. We have already had several examples of 
this spontaneous generalization ; it was easy in this instance, for 
the tastes of chocolate, of the grape, of the peach, etc., agree in 
this, — that being all pleasant they provoke the same desire, that 
of experiencing once more the agreeable sensation. So distinct a 
desire or impulse easily leads to a movement of the head, a gesture 
of the hand, an expression, and consequently to a word. 

Bebe. We have seen the strange signification that she at first 
gave to this word ; little by little she came nearer to the usual 
meaning. Other children were pointed out to her as hebes^ and 
she was herself called by the name, and now answers to it. 
Further, when put down before a very low mirror and shown her 
face reflected in it, she was told " that's bebe" and she now goes 
alone to the mirror and says bebe^ laughing when she sees herself. 
Starting from this she has extended the meaning of the word, and 
calls bebes all little figures, — for instance, some half-size plaster 
statues which are on the stair-case, and the figures of men and 
women in small pictures and prints. Once more, education pro- 
duced an unexpected effect upon her ; the general character 
grasped by the child is not what we intended ; we taught her the 
sound, she has invented the sense. 

Ham (eat, I want to eat) . Here both sound and sense were 
invented. The sound was first heard in her fourteenth month. 
For several weeks I thought it no more than one of her warblings, 
but at last I found that it was always produced without fail in the 
presence of food. The child now never omits to make it when she 
is hungry or thirsty, all the more that she sees we understand it, 
and that by this articulation she gets something to eat or drink. 
On listening attentively and attempting to reproduce it, we perceive 
that it is the natural vocal gesture of a person snapping up any- 
thing ; it begins with a gutteral aspirate like a bark, and ends with 
the closing of the lips as if food were seized and swallowed, A 
man among savages would do just the same, if with tied hands, 
and solely dependent for expression on his vocal organs, he wished 
to say that he wanted food. Little by little the intensity and pecu- 
liarity of the original pronunciation were lessened ; we had repeated 
her word but in a milder form ; consequently she left off making 
so much of the gutteral and labial parts, and the intermediate parts 
came to the front ; instead of Ham she says am, and now we 
generally use the word as she does. Originality and invention are 
so strong in a child, that if it learns our language from us we learn 
it from the child. 

Oua-oua. It is only for the last three weeks (the end of her 



30 INFANT DEVELOPMENT. — M. TAINE. 

sixteenth month) that she has used this word in the sense of some- 
thing good to eat. It was some time before we understood it, for 
she has long used it, and still uses it, besides, in the sense of dog. 
A barking in the street never fails to call forth this word in the 
sense of dog, uttered with the lively joy of a discovery. In the 
new sense the sound has oscillated between va-va and oua-oua. 
Very likely the sound that I write oxia-ovM is double to her accord- 
ing to the double meaning she attaches to it, but my ear cannot 
catch the difference ; the senses of children, much less blunted 
than ours, perceive delicate shades that we no longer distinguish. 
In any case, on seeing at table a dish she wishes for, she says oua- 
oua several times in succession, and she uses the same word when, 
having eaten some of it, she wishes for more ; but it is always in 
presence of a dish and to point out something eatable. By this 
the word is distinguished from am, which she only uses to make 
known her want of food, without specifj'ing any particular thing. 
Thus, when in the garden she hears the dinner-bell she says am., 
and not oua-oua; on the other hand, at table before a cutlet, she 
says oua-oua much oftener than am. For the last two months, on 
the other hand, she has left off using the word tern (give, take, 
look) , of which I spoke above, and I do not think she has replaced 
it by another. This is no doubt because we did not choose to 
learn it, for it did not correspond to any one of our ideas, but 
combined three that are quite distinct ; we did not use it with her, 
and therefore she left off using it herself. 

On summing up the facts I have just related we arrive at the 
following conclusions, which observers should test by observations 
made on other children. At first a child cries and uses its vocal 
organs, in the same way as its limbs, spontaneously and by reflex 
action. Spontaneoush' and from mere pleasure of action it then 
uses its vocal organs in the same way as its limbs, and acquires the 
complete use of it by trial and error. From inarticulate it thus 
passes to articulate sounds. The variety of intonation that it 
acquires shows in it a peculiar delicacy of impression and expres- 
sion. By this delicacy it is capable of general ideas. We only 
help it to catch them by the suggestion of our words. It attaches 
to them ideas that we do not expect, and spontaneously generalizes 
outside and be3'ond our limits. At times it invents not onl}^ the 
meaning of the word, but the word itself. Several vocabularies 
may succeed one another in its mind, by the obliteration of old 
words, replaced by new ones. Many meanings may be given in 
succession to the same word, which remains unchanged. Many of 
the words invented are natural vocal gestures. In short, it learns 
a readj^-made language as a true musician learns counterpoint or 
a true poet prosody ; it is an original genius, adapting itself to a 
form constructed bit by bit by a succession ol original geniuses ; 
if language were wanting, the child would recover it little by little, 
or would discover an equivalent. 



A FRENCH CHILD. — M. TAINE. 31 

These observations were interrupted by the calamities of the je&r 
1870. The following notes may help to determine the mental state 
of a child ; in many respects it is that of primitive peoples at the 
poetical and mythological stage. A jet of water, that the child 
saw under the window for three months, threw her every day into 
new transports of joy, as did also the river under a bridge ; it was 
evident that sparkling running water seemed to her to be of extra- 
ordinary beauty. '■'■L'eau, Veau ! " she goes on exclaiming (twenty 
months) . A little later (two and a half years) she was very much 
struck by the sight of the moon. She wanted to see it every 
evening ; when she saw it through the window panes there were 
cries of joy ; when she walked it seemed to her that it walked too, 
and this discovery charmed her. As the moon, according to the 
hour, appeared in different places, ^ now in front of the house, 
now behind it, — she cried out " Another moon, another moon ! " 
One evening (three years) on enquiring for the moon, and being 
told that it had set (qu'elle est allee se coucher) she replies "But 
Where's the moon's bonne f " All this closely resembles the emo- 
tions and conjectures of primitive peoples, their lively and deep 
admiration for great natural objects, the power that analogy, lan- 
guage and metaphor exercise over them, leading to solar and lunar 
m^'ths, etc. If we admit that such a state of mind was universal 
at any time, we could at once divine the worship and legends that 
would be formed. They would be those of the Vedas, of the Eclda, 
and even of Homer. If we speak to her of an object at a little 
distance, but that she can clearl}' represent to herself from having 
seen it, or others like it, her first question always is, "What does 
it say?" " What does the rabbit say?" "What does the bird say?" 
"What does the horse say?" "What does the big tree say?" 
Animal or ti-ee, she immediately treats it as a person, and wants to 
know its thoughts and words ; that is what she cares about ; by 
spontaneous induction she imagines it like herself, like us ; she 
humanises it. This disposition is found among primitive peoples, 
the stronger the more primitive they are ; in the Edda, especially 
in the Mabinogeon, animals have also the gift of speech ; the 
eagle, the stag, and the salmon, are old and experienced sages, 
who remember bygone events and instruct man. 

It takes much time and many steps for a child to arrive at ideas 
which to us seem simple. When her dolls had their heads broken 
she was told they were dead. One day her grandmother said to 
her, " I am old, I shall not be always Vith you, I shall die." ' ' Then 
shall you have your head broken ?" She repeated this idea several 
times and still (three years and a month) with her "to be dead" is 
to have the head broken. Day before yesterday, a magpie, killed 
by the gardener, was hung by one foot at the end of a stick, like a 
fan ; she was told that the magpie was dead and she wished to see 
it. " What is the magpie doing ?" "It is doing nothing, it can't 
move, it is dead." "Ah!" For the first time the idea of final 



32 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF AN INFANT. ^MR. DARWIN. 

immobility entered her head. Suppose a people to stop short of 
this idea and not define death otherwise ; the other world would be 
to it the scheol of the Hebrews, the place where the immovable dead 
live a vague, almost extinct life. Yesterday means to her in the 
past, and to-morrow in the future, neither of these words denoting 
to her mind a precise day in relation to today, either preceding or 
following it. This is another example of too extended a meaning 
which must be narrowed. There is hardly a word used by children 
"which has not to undergo this operation. Like primitive peoples 
they are inclined to general and wide ideas ; linguists tell us that 
such is the character of roots, and consequently of the first concep- 
tions, as they are found in the most ancient documents, especially 
in the Rig-veda. Speaking generally, the child presents in a pass- 
ing state the mental characteristics that are found in a fixed state 
in primitive civilizations ; very much as the human embrj^o presents 
in a passing state the physical characteristics that are found in a 
fixed state in the classes of inferior animals. 

This lively paper having been published in Mind,was immediately 
followed by some observations of much earlier date, (but later than 
those of Mr. Alcott) which hadbeenrecordedby the great natural- 
ist, Darwin. Mr. Darwin called his paper (published in July, 1877) , 



A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF AN INFANT. 

BY CHAKLES DARWIN. 

M. Taine's very interesting account of the mental development 
of an infant, translated in the last number of Mind (p. 252), has 
led me to look over a diary which I kept 37 years ago, with respect 
to one of m}' own infants. I had excellent opportunities for close 
observation, and wrote down at once whatever was observed. My 
chief object was expression, and my notes were used in my book 
on this subject ; but as I attended to some other points, my obser- 
vations may possibly possess sonie little interest in comparison 
with those by M. Taine, and with others which hereafter, no doubt, 
will be made. I feel sure, from what I have seen with my own in- 
fants, that the period of development of the several faculties will 
be found to differ considerably in different infants. 

During the first seven days various reflex actions, namelj^ sneez- 
ing, yawning, stretching, and of course sucking land screaming, 
were well performed by m}^ infant. On the seventh day, I touched 
the naked sole of his foot with a bit of paper, and he jerked it 
away, curling at the same time his toes, like a much older child 
when tickled. The perfection of these reflex movements shows 
that the extreme imperfection of the voluntary is not due to the 



AN ENGLISH CHILD. — MR. DARWIN. 33 

state of the muscles, or of the co-ordinating centres, but to that 
of the seat of the will. At this time, though so earl3^ it seemed 
clear to me that a wann soft hand applied to his face excited a wish 
to suck. This must be considered as a reflex or an instinctive 
action, for it is impossible to believe that experience and associa- 
tion with the touch of the mother's breast could so soon have come 
into play. During the first fortnight he often started on hearing 
any sudden sound, and blinked his eyes. The same fact was 
observed with some of my other infants within the first fortnight. 
Once, when he was 66 daj^s old I happened to sneeze, and he 
started violently, looked frightened, and cried rather badly ; for an 
hour afterwards he was in a state which would be called nervous 
in an older pei"son, for every slight noise made him start. A few 
da3'S before this- same date, he first started at an object suddenly 
seen ; but for a long time afterwards sounds made him start and 
wink his eyes much more frequently than did sight ; thus when 114 
days old, I shook a pasteboard box with comfits in it near his face 
and he started, whilst the same box when empty, or any other 
object shaken as near or much nearer to his face produced no effect. . 
We may infer from these several facts that the winking of the eyes, 
which manifestly serves to protect them, had not been acquired 
through experience. Although so sensitive to sound in a general 
way, he was not able, even when 124 days old, easily to recognize 
whence a sound proceeded, so as to direct his eyis to the source. 

With respect to vision, his eyes were fixed on a candle as early 
as the 9th day, and up to the 45th nothing else seemed thus to fix 
them ; but on the 49 th day his attention was attracted by a bright 
colored tassel, as was shown by his eyes becoming fixed and the 
movements of his arms ceasing. It was surprising how slowly he 
acquired the power of following with his eyes an object if swinging 
at all rapidly ; for he could not do this well when seven and a half 
months old. At the age of 32 days he perceived his mother's bosom 
when three or four inches from it, as was shown by the protrusion 
of his lips and his eyes becoming fixed ; but I much doubt whether 
this had any connection with vision ; he certainly had not touched 
the bosom. Whether he was guided by smell or the sensation of 
warmth or through association with the position in which he was 
held, I do not at all know. 

The movements of his limbs and body were for a long time vague 
and purposeless, and usually performed in a jerking manner ; but 
there was one exception to this rule, nameh', that from a very 
early period, certainly long before he was 40 daj's old, he took the 
sucking-bottle (with which he was partly fed) in his right hand, 
whether he was held on the left or right arm of his nurse, and he 
would not take it in his lett hand until a week later, although I tried 
to make him do so ; so that the right hand was a week in advance 
of the left. Yet this infant afterwards proved to be left-handed, 
the tendency being no doubt inherited, his grandfather, mother and 
3 



34 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF AN INFANT. MR. DARWIN. 

a brother having been, or being, left-handed. When between 80 
and 90 days old, he drew all sorts of objects into his mouth, and 
in two or three weeks' time could do this with some skill ; but he 
often first touched his nose with the object and then dragged it 
down to his mouth. After grasping my finger and drawing it to 
his mouth, his own hand prevented him, from sucking it ; but on the 
114th day, after acting in this manner he slipped his own hand 
down so that he could get the end of my finger into his mouth. 
This action was repeated several times, and evidently was not a 
chance but a rational one. The intentional movements of the 
hands and arms were thus much in advance of those of the body 
and legs ; though the purposeless movements of the latter were 
from a very early period usually alternate as in the act of walking. 
When four months old, he often looked intently at his own hands 
and other objects close to him, and in so doing the eyes were turned 
much inwards, so that he often squinted frightfully. In a fortnight 
after this time (i.e., 132 days old) I observed that if an object was 
brought as near to his own face as his own hands were, he tried to 
seize it, but often failed ; and he did not try to do so in regard to 
more distant objects. I think there can be little doubt that the 
convergence of his eyes gave him the clue and excited him to move 
his arms. Although this infant thus began to use his hands at an 
early period, he showed no special aptitude in this respect ; for 
when he was 2 years and 4 months old, he held pencils, pens, and 
other objects far less neatl}' and efficiently than did his sister who 
was then only 14 months old, and who showed great inherent apti- 
tude in handling anything. 

Angei'. It was difficult to decide at how early an age anger was 
felt ; on his eighth day he frowned and wrinkled the skin around 
his eyes before a crying fit, but this may have been due to pain or 
distress, and not to anger. When about ten Weeks old, he was 
given some ralher cold milk, and he kept a slight frown on his 
forehead all the time he was sucking, so that he looked like a 
grown-up person made cross from being compelled to do something 
which he did not like. When nearly four months old, and perhaps 
much earlier, there could be no doubt, from the manner in which 
the blood gushed into his whole scalp and face, that he easily got 
into a violent passion. A small cause sufficed ; thus, when a 
little over seven months old, he screamed with rage because a 
lemon slipped away and he could not seize it with his hands. 
When eleven months old, if a wrong plaything was given him, he 
would push it away and beat it ; I presume the beating was an 
instinctive sign of anger, like the snapping of the jaws of a young 
crocodile just out of the egg, and not that he imagined that he 
could hurt the plaything. When two j'ears and three months old, 
he became a great adept at throwing books, or sticks, etc., at any 
one who oflTended him ; and so it was with some of my other sons. 
On the other hand, I could never see a trace of such aptitude in 



AN ENGLISH CHILD. MR. DARWIN. 35 

my infant daughters ; and this makes me think that a tendency to 
throw objects is inherited by boys. 

Feor. This feehng is probably one of the earliest which is 
experienced by infants, as shown by their starting at any sudden 
sound when only a few weeks old, followed by crying. Before the 
present one was four and a half months old I had been accustomed 
to make, close to him, many strange and loud noises, which were 
all taken as excellent jokes, but at this period I one day made a 
loud snoring noise which I had never done before ; he instantly 
-looked grave, and then burst out crying. Two or three days 
after I made, through forgetfulness, the same noise with the same 
result. About the same time (viz., on the 137th day) , I approached 
with my back towards him and then stood motionless ; he looked 
very grave and much surprised, and would soon have cried, had I 
not turned round ; then his face relaxed into a smile. It is well 
known how iiitensely older children suffer from vague and undefined 
fears, as from the dark, or in passing an obscure corner in a large 
hall, etc. I may give as an instance that I took the child in ques- 
tion, when two and a quarter years old, to the Zoological Gardens, 
and he enjoyed looking at all the animals which were like those he 
knew, such as deer, antelope, etc., and all the birds, even the 
ostriches, but was much alarmed at the various larger animals in 
cages. He often said afterwards that he wished to go again, but 
not to see " the beasts in houses ;" and we could in no manner 
account for this fear. May we not suspect that the vague but very 
real fears of children, which are quite independent of experience, 
are the inherited eflTects of real dangers and abject superstitions 
during ancient savage times? It is quite conformable with what 
we know of the transmission of formerlj'^ well-developed characters, 
that they should appear at an early period of life, and afterwards 
disappear. 

Pleasurable Sensations. It may be presumed that infants feel 
pleasure while sucking, and the expression of their swimming eyes 
seems to show that this is the case. This infant smiled when 45 
days, a second infant when 46 days old; and these were true 
smiles, indicative of pleasure, for their eyes brightened and their 
eyelids sligbtl}' closed. The smiles arose chiefl}' when looking at 
their mother, and were, therefore, probably of mental origin, but 
this infant often smiled then, and for some time afterwards, from 
some inward p easurable feeling, for nothing was happening which 
could have in siixy way excited or amused him. When 110 days 
old, he was exceedingly amused by a pinafore being thrown over 
his face, and then suddenly withdrawn ; and so he was when I 
suddenly uncovered my own face and approached his. He then 
uttered a little noise which was an incipient laugh. Here, surprise 
was the chief cause of the amusement, as* is the case to a large 
extent with the wit of grown-up persons. I believe that for three 
or four weeks before the time when he was amused by the face 



36 BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH OF AN INFANT. — MR. DARWIN. 

being suddenly uncovered, he received a little pinch on his nose 
and cheeks as a good joke. I was at first surprised at humor 
being appreciated by an infant only a little above three months old, 
but we should remember how very early puppies and kittens begin 
to play. ' When four months old, he showed in an, unmistakable 
manner that he liked to hear the piano-forte played ; so that here, 
apparently, was the earliest sign of an aesthetic feeling, unless the 
attraction of bright colors, which was exhibited much earlier, may 
be so considered. 

Affection. This probably arose very early in life, if we may 
judge by his smiling at those who had charge of him, when under 
two months old ; though I had no distinct evidence of his distin- 
guishing and recognizing any one, until he was nearly four months old. 
When nearly five months old, he plainly showed his wish to go to 
his nurse. But he did not spontaneously exhibit affection by overt 
acts until a little above a year old, namely, by kissing several 
times his nurse who had been absent a short time. With respect 
to the allied feeling of sympath}', this was clearly shown at six 
months and eleven daj's by his melancholy face, with the corner of 
his mouth well depressed, when his nurse pretended to cry. 
Jealousl}^ was plainly exhibited when I fondled a large doll, and 
when I weighed his infant sister, he being then fifteeen and a half 
months old. Seeing how strong a feeling jealousy is in dogs, it 
would probably be exhibited by infants at an earlier age than that 
just specified, if they were tried in a fitting manner. 

Assocmiion of Ideas, Reason, etc. The first action which exhib- 
ited, as far as I observed, a kind of practical reasoning, has already 
been noticed, namely, the slipping his hand down my finger so as 
to get the end of it in his mouth ; and this happened on the 114th 
da3^ When four and a half months old, he repeatedly smiled at 
m}' image and at his own in mirror, and no doubt mistook them 
for real objects, but he showed sense in being evidently surprised 
at my voice coming from behind him. Like all infants he much 
enjoyed thus looking at himself, and in less than two months per- 
fectly' understood that it was an image, for if I made quite silently 
any odd grimace, he would suddenly turn round to look at me. 
He was, however, puzzled at the age of seven months, when being 
put out of doors, he saw me on the inside of a large plate-glass 
window, and seemed to doubt whether or not it was an image. 
Another of my infants, a little girl, when exactly a year old, was 
not nearl^'^ so acute, and seemed quite perplexed at the image of a 
person in a mirror approaching her from behind. The higher apes 
which I tried with a small looking glass, behaved differently ; they 
placed their hands behind the glass, and in doing so showed their 
sense ; but far from taking pleasure in looking at themselves, they 
got angry and would ICok no more. 

When five months old, associated ideas, arising independently of 
any instruction, became fixed in his mind ; thus, as soon as his hat 



CHILDREN AND ANIMALS. — MR. DARWIN. 37 

and cloak were put on, he was very cross if he was not immediately 
taken out of doors. When exactly seven months old, he made the 
great step of associating his nurse with her name, so that if I 
called it out he would turn round and look for her. Another 
infant used to amuse himself by shaking his head laterally ; we 
praised and imitated him, saying, " Shake your head ; " and when 
he was seven months old, he would sometimes do so on being told, 
without any other guide. During the next four months, the 
former infant associated many things and actions with words ; 
thus, when asked for a kiss, he would protrude his lips and keep 
still, would shake his head and say in a scolding voice, "ah," to 
the coal-box, or a little spQt water, etc., which he had been taught 
to consider as dirty. I may add that, when a few days under nine 
months old, he associated his own name with his image in the 
looking-glass, and when called by name would turn towards the 
glass, even when at some distance from it. When a few days over 
nine months, he learnt spontaneously that a hand, or other object, 
causing a shadow to fall on the wall in front of him, was to be 
looked for behind. Whilst under a year old, it was sufficient to 
repeat two or three times at intei-vals any short sentence to fix 
firmly in his mind some associated idea. In the infant described 
by M. Taine, the age at which ideas readily became associated, 
seems to have been considerably later, unless, indeed, the earlier 
cases were overlooked. The facility with which associated ideas, 
due to instruction and others, spontaneously arising, weire acquired, 
seemed to me by far the most strongly marked of all the dis- 
tinctions between the mind of an infant and that of the cleverest 
full-grown dog that I have ever known. What a contrast does 
the mind of an infant pi*esent to that of a pike, described by 
Prof. Mobius, who during three whole months, dashed and stunned 
himself against a glass partition which separated him from some 
minnows ; and, when, after at last learning that he could not 
attack them with impunity, he was placed in the same aquarium 
with these same minnows, then in a persistent and senseless 
manner, he would not attack them. 

Curiosity, as M. Taine remarks, is displayed at an early age by 
infants, and is highly important in the development of their minds ; 
but I made no special observation on this head. Imitation like- 
wise comes in play. When one infant was only four months old, 
I thought he tried to imitate sounds ; but I may have deceived 
myself, for I was not thoroughly convinced that he did so until he 
was ten months old. At the age of 11^ months, he could readily 
imitate all sorts of actions, such as shaking his head and saying 
" ah," to any dirty object, or by carefully and slowly putting his 
forefinger in the middle of the palm of the other hand, to the 
childish rhyme of "pat it, and pat it, and mark it with T." It 
was amusing to behold his pleased expression after successfully 
performing any such accomplishment. I do not know whether ib 



38 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF AN INFANT. — ME. DARWIN. 

is worth mentioning, as showing something about the strength of 
memory in a young child, that this one, when three years and 
twenty-three days old, on being shown an engraving of his grand- 
father, whom he had not seen for exactly six months, instantly 
recognized him and mentioned a whole string of events which had 
occurred whilst visiting him, and which certainly had never been 
mentioned in the interval. 

Moral Sense. The first sign of moral sense was noticed at the 
age of thirteen months ; I said, " Doddy " (his nickname) , " won't 
give poor papa a kiss ; naught}^ Doddy ! " These words, without 
any doubt, made him feel shghtly uncomfortable ; and, at last, 
when I had returned to my chair, he protruded his lips as a sign 
that he was ready to kiss me ; and he then shook his head in an 
angr}' manner until I came and received his kiss. Nearly the 
same little scene recurred in a few days, and the reconciliation 
seemed to give him so much satisfaction, that several times after- 
wards he pretended to be angry and slapped me, and then insisted 
on giving me a kiss. So that, here we have a touch of the dra- 
matic art, which is so stronglj^ pronounced in most young children. 
About this time it became easy to work on his feelings, and make 
him do whatever was wanted. When two years and three months 
old, he gave his last bit of gingerbread to his little sister, and then 
cried out with high self -approbation, " Oh, kind Doddy, kind 
Doddy." Two months later, he became extremely sensitive to 
ridicule, and was so suspicious that he often thought people who 
were laughing and talking together were laughing at him. A little 
later (two years and seven and a half months old) , I met him 
ooming out of the dining-room with his eyes unnaturally bright, 
and an odd, unnatural or affected manner, so that I went into the 
room to see who was there, and found he had been taking pounded 
sugar, which he had been told not to do. As he had never been 
in any waj' punished, his odd manner certainly was not due to 
fear, and I suppose it was pleasurable excitement struggling with 
conscience. A fortnight afterwards, I met him coming out of the 
same room, and he was eyeing his pinafore, which was carefully 
rolled up ; and again his manner was so odd that I determined to 
see what was within his pinafore, notwithstanding that he said 
there was nothing, and repeatedly commanded me to "go away," 
and I found it stained with pickle juice ; so that here was carefully 
planned deceit. As this child was educated solely by working on 
his good feelings, he soon became as truthful, open, and tender as 
any one could desire. 

Unconsciousness, Shyness. No one can have attended to very 
young children without being struck at the unabashed manner with 
which they fixedly stare without blinking their eyes at a new face ; 
an old person can loqk in this manner only at an animal or inani- 
mate object. This, I believe, is the result of young children not 
thinking in the least about themselves, and therefore not being in 



AN ENGLISH CHILD. — MR. DARWIN. 39 

the least shy, though the}' are sometimes afraid of strangers. I 
saw the first symptoms of shyness in my child when nearly two 
years and three months old ; this was shown towards myself, after 
an absence of ten days from home, chiefly by his eyes being 
slightly averted from mine ; but he soon came and sat on my knee 
and kissed me, and all trace of shyness disappeared. 

Means of Communication. The noise of crying or rather of 
squalling, as no tears are shed for a long time, is of course uttered 
in an instinctive manner, but serves to show that there is suffering. 
After a time the sound differs according to the cause, such as 
hunger or pain. This was noticed when this infant was eleven 
weeks old, and I believe at an earlier age in another infant. 
Moreover, he appeared soon to learn to begin to cry voluntarily, 
or to wrinkle his face in a manner proper to the occasion, so as to 
show that he wanted something. When 46 days old, he first made 
little noises without any meaning to please himself, and these soon 
became varied. An incipient laugh was observed on the 113th 
day, but much earlier in another infant. At this date I thought, 
as already remarked, that he began to try to imitate sounds, as he 
certainly did at a considerably later period. When five months 
and a half old, he uttered an articulate sound " da," but without 
Siuj meaning attached to it. When a little over a j'ear old, he 
used gestures to explain his wishes ; to give a simple instance, he 
picked up a bit of paper and, giving it to me, pointed to the fire, 
as he had often seen and liked to see paper burnt. At exactlj- the 
age of a year, he made a great step of inventing a word for food, 
namely, mum, but what led him to it I did not discover. And 
now instead of beginning to cry when he was hungry, he used this 
word in a demonstrative manner or as a verb, implying " Give 
me food." This word, therefore, corresponds with ham, as used 
by M. Taine's infant at the later age of fourteen months. But he 
also used mum as a substantive of wide signification ; thus he 
called sugar shu-mum, and a little later after he had learned the 
word "black," he called liquorice black shic-mum, — black-sugar- 
food. 

I was particularly struck with the fact that when asking for 
food by the word mum he gave to it (I will copy the words written 
down at the time) " a most strongly marked interrogatory sound 
at the end." He also gave to " ah," which he chiefly used at first 
when recognizing any person, or his own image in a mirror, an 
exclamatory sound, such as we employ when surprised. I remark 
in my notes that the use of these intonations seemed to have 
arisen instinctively, and I regret that more observations were not 
made on this subject. I record, however, in my notes, that at a 
rather later period, when between 18 and 21 months old, he 
modulated his voice in refusing peremptorily to do anything by a 
defiant whine, so as to express "That I won't;" and again his 
humph of assent expressed "Yes, to be sure." M. Taine also 



40 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF AN INFANT. — MR. DARWIN. 

insists strongly on the highlj' expressive tones of the sounds made 
by his infant before she had learnt to speak. The interrogatory 
sound which my child gave to the word mum, when asking for food 
is especially curious ; for if any one will use a single word or a 
short sentence in this manner, he will find that the musical pitch 
of his voice rises considerably at the close. I did not then see 
that this fact bears on the view which I have elsewhere maintained 
that before man used articulate language, be uttered notes in a 
true musical scale, as does the anthropoid ape Hylobates. 

Finally, the wants of an infant are at first made intelligible by 
instinctive cries, which after a time are modified, in part uncon- 
sciousl}^, and in part, as I believe, voluntarily, as a means of com- 
munication, b}' the unconscious expression of the features, by 
gestures, and in a marked manner by diflferent intonations, lastly 
by words of a general nature invented by himself, then of a more 
precise nature imitated from that which he hears ; and these latter 
are acquired at a wonderfully quick rate. An infant understands 
to a certain extent, and as I believe at a very early period, the 
meaning or feelings of those who tend him, by the expression of 
their features. There can hardly be a doubt about this with re- 
spect to smihng ; and it seemed to me that the infant whose biog- 
raphy I have here given understood a compassionate expression at 
a little over five months old. When 6 months and 11 days old, he 
certainly showed sympathy with his nurse on her pretending to cry. 
When pleased after performing some new accomplishment, being 
almost a year old, he evidently studied the expression of those 
around him. It was probably due to diflferences of expression, and 
not merel}^ of the form of the features, that certain faces clearly 
pleased him much more than others, even at so early an age as a 
little over six months. Before he was a year old, he understood 
intonations and gestures, as well as several words and short sen- 
tences. He understood one word, namely, his nurse's name, 
exactly five months before he invented his first word mum; and 
this is what might have been expected, as we know that the lower 
animals easily learn to understand spoken words. 



These papers of M. Taine and Mr. Darwin having appeared in 
Mind in 1877, (M. Taine's first came out in the Revue Fhiloso- 
pMque for January, 1876,) were followed by several contributions 
of more or less value, one of which we reprint below from Mindj 
January, 1881. 



ANOTHER ENGLISH CHILD. — MR. CHAMPNEYS. 41 

NOTES ON AN INFANT. 

The following notes, based on Mr. Darwin's most interesting 
and accurate report of the unfolding of the senses, emotions, &c., 
in one of his own children (Mind VII.), are offered as a small 
contribution to this interesting subject, on which observations, so 
constantly at hand, ought to be more often carefully made. They 
concern the writer's infant son, and extend from the moment of 
birth through a period of nine months. 

Sucking. — The first thing the child did when left alone a few 
minutes after birth, was to suck the blanket in which he was 
wrapped. 

When hungry, he would cram his hands into his mouth with 
varying precision, and suck them hard. This was observed ever 
since birth, and seemed to be adopted without hesitation as a 
means for temporarily appeasing hunger. 

At 4 days old he pushed away his mother's breast when satisfied. 

The touch of a warm hand did not induce sucking movements. 

No practice seemed to be required for directing the hands to the 
mouth. 

Sneezing was always accompanied by violent movements of all 
the limbs, the thighs being flexed on the abdomen, the forearms 
bent, and the elbows thrust forward. 

The purpose of the flexion of the thighs on the belly was proba- 
bly partly to relieve the tension of the suddenly contracted abdom- 
inal muscles, but the movements of the arms (and partly those of 
the legs also) probably had for their cause the necessity for relief 
of what is called a "nervous discharge" of great amplitude, such as 
a sneeze. 

Crying was performed at first without any squaring of the mouth. 
The sound can be exactly expressed by "nga" as pronounced in 
German. This must have been produced by closing the fauces by 
the contact of the pillars of the fauces and the soft palate, so as to 
send all the sound through the nose ; the vowel sound being then 
produced by separating the soft palate and pillars of the fauces 
and allowing the sound to come through the mouth. 

The child appeared to cry at first for three reasons : (l)from a 
feeling of loneliness or fright on awakening from sleep, which was 
relieved by being taken in the mother's or nurse's arms, or even by 
a touch : (2) from hunger ; (3) from pain. The cries seemed to 
be all different in character. 

Smiling was reported at 6^ weeks, but not certainly observed 
before the end of the 8th week. It was often accompanied by 
sucking movements. This shows the association of two pleasurable 
ideas. 

Wee]ping. — Tears were shed two days before the end of the 14th 
week. 



42 NOTES ON AN INFANT. — -ME. CHAMPNETS. 

Seeing. — The eyes were first fixed on a candle when a week old. 
On the same day, the eyes were fixed on one of the parents for 
the first time. 

Opening of the eyes was accompanied by wrinkling of the skin 
of the forehead ; the wrinkles, being horizontal, were due to the 
frontalis muscle. They resembled those produced in adults during 
an effort to open the eyes when tightly closed, either on account of 
very dazzling light or of a foreign body in the eye ; but were prob- 
ably only necessitated by redundancy of skin, which is very 
observable in a young child and most young animals. This 
wrinkling gradually ceased. 

The ninth day was the first on which anything like habitual 
opening of the eyes occurred. 

It was not before the 14th day that the child took notice of 
persons or moving objects. 

From the time that he began to use his eyes, bright light gave 
him much pleasure, and he never blinked except on a change from 
comparative darkness to bright light; when the moment of this 
change was past, he would gaze for a long time with much appar- 
ent delight and with wide-open eyes at a lamp or at the gas, how- 
ever bright. This fact makes it unlikely that the frowning men- 
tioned above was du£ to being dazzled. He was first able to see 
himself in the glass at 8 weeks old, the experiment having been 
often used before. 

Hearing. — During the first week the child would not start at 
any noise however sudden, when unaccompanied by vibration of 
the room or bed. For instance, no notice was taken of hands 
loudly clapped close to his ear ; but slamming of a door made him 
start. Just the same starting was observed immediately after 
birth when the scale in which he was being weighed went down 
with a jerk. 

It was very difficult to decide when the child really heard first. 
At 14 days old he would turn his eyes to his mother when she 
spoke to him, but even then did not start at sudden noises however 
loud, unless accompanied by jerks or vibrations ; so that the 
apparent power of hearing his mother's voice may have depended 
on his feeling her breath on his face, for it was only when her face 
was turned towards him while she spoke that he turned his eyes 
towards her. 

In connection with the late appearance of this sense, we must 
remember that the tympanum at birth is packed with areolar 'tissue 
which only gradually becomes absorbed after birth. 

Reflex Actions. — Among these may be noticed the spasmodic 
start which occurred on any jar or vibration, previously noticed, 
and also the fact that micturition was always or nearly always 
indicated by a slight shiver. 

The slight provocation necessary for producing a convulsion in 
children is a well-known sign of their great irritability to nervous 
stimuli. 



AN ENGLISH CHILD. — MR. CHAMPNEYS. 43 

. Exactly at 4 weeks old the child started at sudden noises if 
unexpected, but would not start twice at the same noise if not 
excessively loud. 

Taste. — The child rejected all things given to him cold, even 
milk, but would take various things not especially nice (such as 
cod liver oil) if warm. The temperature seemed to be of more 
consequence to him than the taste. 

Voluntary Movements. — The arms were far more purposive in 
their movements than the legs from the very first. The movements 
of the arms from the first were like those of striliing with the fists, 
;the fists, however, being only partially clenched. 

Walking. — When one day less than 19 weeks old, the trial was 
made of supporting the child on the floor with the feet just touch- 
ing the ground, and moving him forward. The movements of the 
legs were always alternate and purposive, each step being perfectly 
formed ; though the feet were lifted unnecessarily high, there was 
no hesitation nor irregularity. Onl}'' when he was lifted too high 
for one or other foot to touch the ground was this alternate move- 
ment interrupted, the foot which failed to reach the ground making 
a fresh step. It was obvious that the contact of one foot with the 
ground was the stimulus for moving forward the other foot. 

Attempts at Talking. — From nine months the child distinctly 
imitated the intonation of the voice when any word or sentence was 
repeated in the same way several times. 

About the 13th week he began to appear to attempt to join in 
the (Conversation with a variety of articulate sounds, if talking was 
going on in the room. 

Fear. — The first sj'mptom of fear was noticed at about 9 months. 
It was excited by an unusual sound in the room, but not in the 
child's immediate neighborhood ; he opened his eyes very wide and 
burst out crying. The second occasion was at about 10 months, 
when sound was again the exciting cause; a toy was given him 
which squeaked on pressure, he burst out crying, and cried when- 
ever it was offered him, but in a short time he got used to it, 
became very fond of it, and made it squeak himself. 

I have one or two remarks to make on Mr. Darwin's paper. 
He says : "On the 7th day I touched the naked sole of his foot with 
a bit of paper and he jerked it away, curling at the same time his 
toes, like a much older child when tickled." Such reflex movements 
can be provoked in utero, and can be utilized in obstetric opera- 
tions for distinguishing a hand from a foot, the hand closing on 
the finger. Kicks can be excited even through the abdominal 
walls by sudden movements and by direct contact in the way of 
tickling. 

With regard to the words "mum" used by Mr. Darwin's child, 
and "ham" used by M. Taine's to express food, I would suggest 
that both were invented, subsequently to the use of solid food, for 



44 OBSERVATIONS BY PROF. PREYER. 

Mr. Darwin's invented "mum" at twelve months, and M. Taine's 
invented "ham" at 14 months. Both words seem to be the result 
of a vowel sound during mastication. Let any one try to eat 
or move his mouth as in eating, pronouncing at the same time any 
vowel sound. He will find that each vowel is closed by the letter 
"m" which is common to "mum" and "ham." "Mum" is the 
result of "u" with the mouth first shut, then opened, then shut. 
"Ham" (probably without the "h" aspirated, especially as an 
aspirated "h" is too much for the recti abdominis muscles of an 
infant) is the result of an "a" similarly treated. 

That "m" is one of the earliest acquired consonants, appears 
from the word "mama." 

I would also suggest that the word "mumble," used of a dog 
growling while gnawing a bone, is probably onomatopoetic, and to 
be similarly explained. I do not know the etymology of the Latin 
word "mando." 

F. H. Champnets. 



A GEEMAN CHILD. 

OBSERVATIONS BY PROFESSOR PREYER. 

[The General Secretary takes occasion to add here some portions 
of a translation made by Miss Marion Talbot, of Boston, from 
Professor William Preyer's work on Mind in Infancy, (Die Seele 
des Kindes) and published in the American bimonthly Education, 
for January, 1882. The speculative parts of the translation are 
here omitted, and the special observations of Dr. Preyer on his 
own child are cited, as a continuation and contrast, in some 
respects, to the other observations on infants cited in this number 
of the Journal of Social Science. Dr. iPreyer says :] 

But little help in developing the notion of the Ego is gained f rom^ 
the first movements of the hands, which the infant puts in his 
mouth at an early period, and which must give a different sensa- 
tion from other objects when he sucks them. The fact that my 
child for months pulled at his hands as if he would tear them apart, 
and struck at his head when experimenting with his hands, shows 
how far removed from self-consciousness these movements are. 
At the end of the first year my child had a predilection for striking 
hard objects against his teeth, and took delight in grating his 
teeth. On the four hundred and ninth day, when he was standing 
in his crib' and holding on to the railing, he bit his bare arm so 
hard that he instantly screamed with pain. The marks of the teeth 



A GERMAN CHILD. — ^PROF. PREYER. 45 

could be seen for a long time afterward. The boy did not bite his 
arm a second time, but later he bit his finger, and inadvertently his 
tongue. 

The same child, who liked to hold a cracker to the mouth of any 
one he was kindly disposed towards, offered one to his own foot in 
the same way, and sitting on the floor, held the cracker to his toes, 
evidently taking pleasure in doing so. This occurred several times 
in the twenty-third month. 

How little the difference between the parts of the body and exter- 
nal objects is recognized even at the end of the first- year, follows 
from some singular experiments which the child tried quite inde- 
pendently. He sat near me at the table, and struck it frequently 
and quickly with his hands ; first soft, then hard, next hard with 
the right hand alone, and then suddenly hit his mouth with the 
same hand. After holding his hand to his mouth for a short time, 
he struck the table again with it and then suddenly struck his head 
above the ear. This experiment seemed for the first time to im- 
press the child that it was one thing to strike one's self, one's own 
hard head, and another to strike a foreign hard object (forty-first 
week) . In the thirteenth month the child still hit his head while 
experimenting with his hand, and seemed astonished at its hard- 
ness. In the sixteenth month he was in the habit of pushing and 
striking the left thumb against the left side of the head, and the 
right thumb against the right side, while holding the fingers out- 
stretched, which made him open his eyes and caused a singular 
expression of wonder. This movement is neither imitated nor 
inherited, but learned from experience. The child without doubt 
gains experience in a similar way in regard to holding the head, 
shaking the head, resistance of the body ; perhaps, too, manage- 
ment of the head. The objectivity of the finger became known a 
short time before, when it was involuntarily bitten ; for in the fif- 
teenth month the child bit his finger so hard that he cried with 
pain. Pain is the most powerful master in learning the difference 
between subjective and objective. 

I particularly observed the way in which the child looked at his 
body, and also at his reflected image. In relation to the first I 
made the following notes : 

Seventeenth week. In grasping movements, which are still im- 
perfect, the gaze is directed partly towards the object, partly 
towards the hand, especially if it has once grasped correctly. 

Eighteenth week. The very attentive observation of the fingers 
in grasping is remarkable, and should be daily noticed. 

Twenty-third week. When the infant, who frequently moves 
his hands aimlessly about in the air, by chance grasps one with 
the other, he watches attentively both hands, which are often cas- 
ually clasped. 

Twenty-fourth week. The child fixes his eyes for several min- 
utes upon a glove which he himself holds in his hands, and changes 
the fingers which grasp it. 



40 OBSERVATIONS BY PROF. PREYER. 

Thirty-second week. The child, while lying on his back, often 
looks at his legs stretched upright, and more especially at his feet, 
as if the}' were something not belonging to him. 

Thirty-flfth week. In every possible position the child tries to 
seize one foot with both hands and put it in his mouth, and fre-» 
quently succeeds. This apish movement seems to afford him pe- 
culiar pleasure. 

Thirtj'-sixth week. The hands and feet are no longer watched 
so frequently without special cause. His gaze is attracted by other 
new objects, which he attempts to grasp. 

Thirty-ninth week. When in the bath, the child sometimes looks 
at and touches his skin with evident delight, and sometimes gazes 
at his legs, which he bends and stretches in every direction. 

Fifty-fifth week. The child watches attentively, for a long time, 
a person who is eating, and follows every movement with his eyes ; 
reaches out towards the person's face, and looks at his own hands 
after striking his head. He likes to play with other's hands and' 
takes delight in their motions, evidently comparing them with those 
of his own fingers. 

Sixty-second week. He gazes continuously at his own fingers, 
and plays with them as if he would tear them out. One hand is 
pressed by the other flat upon the table, so hard as to cause pain, 
as if it were a strange plaything, and is constantly looked at with 
an air of wonder. 

Thereafter the child's inclination to watch the parts of the body 
noticeably abated. He knew them by their form, and had gradu- 
ally learned to distinguish them from extraneous objects as parts 
of himself ; but by no means had he as yet reached the thought, 
" The hand is mine, what was taken hold of is not," or " The leg 
belongs to me." 

Darwin observed (1840) of one of his sons, that in the fifth month 
he repeatedly laughed at the reflections of his father and himself 
in the glass, and thought them real bodies. But he was surprised 
that his father's voice came from behind. 

I made the following observations of my boy : — 
. In the eleventh week he did not see himself in the mirror. When 
I knocked against the glass he turned his head in the direction of 
the sound, but his image did not make the slightest impression 
upon him. 

In the fourteenth and fifteenth weeks he looked at his image with 
perfect indifference. His glance was directed towards the eyes in 
the image, without any expression of pleasure or displeasure. 

In the sixteenth week the mirror was stiU either ignored or re- 
garded with indifference. 

At the beginning of the seventeenth week, on the one hundred 
and thirteenth day, the child looked at his image with unmistaka- 
ble attention, and his countenance wore the same expression with 
which he was in the habit of gazing at the face of a stranger. It 



A GERMAN CHILD. — PROr. PREYER. 47 

was evident that he observed himself for the first time, but the im- 
pression seemed to awaken neither pleasure nor displeasure. Three 
days later the child positively laughed at his image. 

When I held the child before the mirror again in the twenty- 
fourth week, he saw my image, became very attentive, and turned 
suddenly to me, apparently to convince himself that I was near 
him. 

In the twenty-fifth week he for the first time stretched his hand 
towards the image, thinking he could grasp it. 

In the twenty-sixth week it pleased the child to see me in the 
glass ; he turned towards me and compared the original with the 
image. 

In the thirty-fifth week the child reached out towards the image 
with eagerness and interest, and was astonished when his hand 
touched the hard, smooth surface. 

This continued from the forty-first to the forty-fourth week ; the 
child regularly laughed at his image and tried to seize it. 

All these observations were made before a full-length mirror. 
But in the fifty-seventh week I held a hand-glass close to the child's 
facej He looked at his image and then put his hand behind the 
glass, moving it about as if in search of something. He next took 
the glass himself, looked at it, and touched it on both sides. When 
I held the glass before him again after several minutes, the same 
manoeuvres were repeated. This agreed with the observations 
made by Darwin on anthropoid monkeys, which I have mentioned. 

In the fifty-eighth week I showed the child his cabinet photograph 
under glass in a frame. He turned the picture about like the hand- 
glass. Although the photograph was much smaller than the re- 
flected image, they seemed to him to be alike. On the same (four 
hundred and second) day, I again held a hand-glass before the 
boy, showing him his image ; but he obstinately turned away, again 
like an intelligent animal. Here the incomprehensible in a literal 
sense was troubling him ; but very soon came the insight which the 
quadruped lacks. In the sixtieth week the child saw his mother in 
the glass, and when asked, "Where is mamma?" pointed to the 
image, and then turned laughing to his mother. Whereas the 
child formerly made cunning mistakes, there is no doubt but that 
at this age — fourteen months — the original and the image were 
distinguished as such, and the photograph no longer excited sur- 
prise. 

Nevertheless, even in the sixty-first week the child tried to touch 
his image, and licked the glass in which he saw himself, and also 
in the sixty-sixth week struck it with his hand. In the following 
week I sw the child making faces for the first time before the 
glass, and laughing at it. I stood behind him and called him by 
name. He immediately turned round, although he saw me plainly 
in the glass. He evidently knew that the voice did not come from 
the image. 



48 OBSERVATIONS BY PROF. PREYER. 

In the sixty-ninth week signs of vanit}'' were perceived ; the child 
frequently took pleasure in watching himself in the glass. If any 
one placed something on his head and said "pretty," his expres- 
sion changed and became peculiarly self-satisfied, his eyebrows 
were lifted and his e3'es were dilated. 

In the twenty-first month, the child put on a piece of lace or 
embroidery, let it hang from his shoulders, looked around as it 
trailed, stepped forward, and then stood still, intent on making new 
folds in it. Here monkeyish imitation and vanity are mingled. 

In the seventeenth month, the child showed a predilection for 
standing before the glass and making grimaces ; these experiments 
with the mirror were, therefore, discontinued. They point out the 
transition from the condition in which the infant cannot see clearly, 
and has no feeling of self, to that of the developed Ego, which 
consciously distinguishes itself from its own image, as well as from 
other people and their images. But there is for a long time a 
certain cloudiness in respect to pointing out objects. In the 
twenty-first month the child laughed at his image and pointed to it 
when I asked, "Where is Axel?" and to my image when asked, 
"Where is papa?" But when questioned seriously, the child 
turned about with a doubtful air. One evening I placed a large 
mirror near my child's bed when he was asleep, in such a position 
that he should look in it immediately on awaking. He saw his 
image directly after he awoke ; appeared greatly astonished by it ; 
stared at it ; and when I asked, " Where is Axel?" he pointed, not 
to himself, but to his image (six hundred and twentieth day) . In 
the thirty-first month it still gave him great pleasure to watch his 
image, and he laughed at it continuously and heartily. 

As is well known, animals conduct themselves quite differently 
in this respect. A pair of Turkish ducks kept themselves quite 
apart from other ducks. When the female died, to my astonish- 
ment, the drake betook himself to a cellar window in which could 
be seen his reflection, and stood there daily for hours at a time. 
He evidently thought his image was his lost companion. A young 
cat before whom I held a mirror, seemed to take the image for a 
second cat ; for when the mirror was raised, she went behind and 
around it. Many animals are frightened by their images, and run 
away. 

The discovery of their shadow also causes fear to little children. 
At first my child showed signs of fear at his shadow, but in the 
fourth year, took delight in it, and to the question, " Where does 
the shadow come from? " gave this remarkable answer, " From the 
sun." 



REGISTER OF INFANT DEVELOPMENT. 49 

CIRCULAR OF APRIL, 1881. 



We have been made familiar with the habits of plants and 
animals from the careful investigations which have from time to 
time been published, — the intelligence of animals, even, coming 
in for a due share of attention. One author alone contributes a 
book of a thousand pages upon "Mind in the Lower Animals.' 
Recently some educators in this country have been thinking that 
to study the natural development of a single child is worth more 
than a Noah's Ark full of animals. Little has been done in this 
study, at least little has been recorded. It is certain that a great 
many mothers might contribute observations of their own child's 
life and development, which would at some future time be invalua- 
ble to the psychologist. In this belief the Education Department 
of the American Social Science Association has issued the accom- 
panying Register, and asks the parents of very young children to 
interest themselves in the subject, — 

1. By recognizing the importance of the study of the youngest 
infants. 

2. By observing the simplest manifestations of their life and 
movements. 

3. By answering fuUy and carefully the questions asked in the 
Register. 

4. By a careful record of the signs of development during the 
coming year, each observation to be verified, if possible, by other 
members of the family. 

5. By interesting their friends in the subject and forwarding the 
results to the Secretary. 

6. Above all, by perseverance and exactness in recording these 
observations. 

From the records of many thousand observers in the next few 
years it is believed that important facts will be gathered of great 
value to the educator and to the psychologist. A letter from Prof. 
Preyer, of Jena, Prussia, on the literature of the subject, may be 
found in No. XIII. of the Journal of Social Science^ published by 
A. Williams & Co., Boston ; while the English quarterly Mind has 
been printing for four or five years past contributions, the more 
important of which are reprinted in No. XV. of the Journal of 
Social Science. 



50 EEGISTER OF INFANT DEVELOPMENT. 

CIRCULAR OF JANUARY, 1882. 



The Education Department of the American Social Science 
Association, early in 1881, issued the accompanying Register, 
with an explanatory Circular. The same Department Committee 
would now call the attention of parents to the second issue of the 
Register of Observations on the development of infants,' and beg 
their continued interest. In pursuing the study of this subject the 
Committee hope to attain several results : 

1. True records of the order of development, and facts illus- 
trating it. 

2. More thoughtful attention, by both parents, to the idiosyn. 
cracies in dispositions, and to the needs of each child. 

3. The discussion of unsettled questions, such as the inheritance 
of traits, the development of speech, intelligent consciousness, the 
influence of food, race, climate, etc. 

4. Assistance to parents in the formation of more intelligent and 
systematic plans of education. 

In reply to the query why these questions are asked, and certain 
others are not, it is proper to say that the form in which the 
Register is presented only suggests lines of study open to parents. 
It is. hoped that sufficient curiosity and interest will be excited in 
the subject to tempt divergence from the method here presented. 
Each observer is therefore invited to broaden the field of observa- 
tion by suggestions and by original research, and to report the 
results of investigation to this Committee. 

The monographs of Darwin and Taine on this subject are 
reprinted, as a guide to the manner of proceeding with the work of 
observation. 



WUl the observer have the kindness to carefully answer as many 

as possible of these questions and return this circular before July 

15th, 1882, to 

MRS. EMILY TALBOT, 

Secretary of the Education Department of the American Social 
Science Associatio7i, 

66 Maklbobough Street, Boston, Mass. 

Boston, January 1, 1882. 



REGISTER OP INFANT DEVELOPMENT. 



51 



Kegister of Physical and Mental Development of 



(Give the Baby's full name) 

Name and occupation of the father? 

Place and time of father's birth? 

" " mother's " ?.....„ 

" " baby's " ? 

Is it a first, second or third child?. : 

Babj-'s weight at birth? at 3 months? at 6 

months? at 1 year? 

How fed?.... , ; 

Is the baby strong and healthy, or otherwise ?. 

At what age did the baby exhibit consciousness, and in what 

manner? 

At what age did the baby smile? ; 

" " " recognize its mother? 

" " " ' notice its hand? 

" " " follow a light with its eyes? ., 

" " " hold up its head? 

" " " sjt alone on the floor? 

" ■" " creep? 

" " " stand by a chair? 

" " " stand alone? 

" " " walk alone? 

" " " hold a plaything when put in its hand? 



52 REGISTEK OF INFANT DEVELOPMENT. 

At what age did the baby reach out and take a plaything? 

" " " appear to be right or left handed ? 

" " " notice pain, as the prick of a pin? 

" " " show a like or dislike in taste? 

" " " appear sensible to sound ? 

" " " notice the light of a window or turn 

towards it? 

" ' " " fear the heat from stove or grate ? 

" " " speak, and what did it say?..... 

How many words could it say at 1 year? at 18 

months?. at 2 years? 

(Please observe and report the order of the Parts of Speech.) 

Are these observations made from memory ? from a 

diary? or from week to week? 



Observers are referred to the following publications among 
others: 

Psychogenesis by Dr. W. Preyer. (In Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 
April, 1881. New York: D. Appleton & Co.) 

Education, Jan. 1882. New England Publishing Co. 

Die Sprache des Kindes, by Fritz Schultze. Leipzic : E. Giinther. 

Observations, et reflections sur le developpement de I' intelligence et du 
language chez les enfants, by M. E. Egger. 3d Edition. Paris : A. Picard. 

Die Seele des Kitides, by Dr. W. Preyer. Leipsig: Tli. Grieberis Verlag. 

Les trois premieres annees de Fenfant, L' Education des le Berceau, by 
Bernard Perez. Paris : Germer Bailli^re et Cie. 



LBFe '07 



AMERICAN SOCIAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 



DEPARTMENT COMMTTTEES. 



Education Department. — Prof. W. T. Harris, Concord, Mass.; T. W. 
Higsfinson, Cambridge, Mass. ; Justin Winsor, Cambrid£;e, Mass, ; A. E. 
Spofford, Washington, D. C. ; W. F. Poole, Chicago, 111. ; "Sanmel S. Green, 
Worcester, Mass. ; Prof. G. P. Brown, Terre Haute, Ind. ; W. T. Switzler, 
Columbia, Mo. ; John Hitz, Wnshingtcm, D.C. ; Prof. Alpheus Hyatt, Boston, 
Mass. ; Mrs. Martha E. Ware, St. Louis, Mo. : Mrs. licbecca 1). HickoflT, 
Cleveland, Ohio; Miss Mary W. Hinman, Havana, N.Y. ;'j. P. Wickersham, 
Harrisburg, Pa.; Pres F. A. P. Barnard, New York; Gen. S. C. Arm- 
strong, Hampton, Va. ; Louis F. Soldan, St. Louis, Mo. ; Mrs. Emily Talbot, 
Boston. 

Health Depai-tment. — Walter Channing, M.D., Boston; T>. F. Lincoln, 
M.I)., Geneva, N.Y. ; E. M. Hunt, M.D., Metuchin, N.J. ; AV. G. Wylie, 
M.D., New York; Prof W. H. Brewer, New Haven, Ct. ; J. C. Hamilton, 
M.D., Mobile, Ala.; George E. Waring, Jr., Newport, 11. 1. ; J. S. Billings, 
M.D., AVashington, D.C; S. B. St. John, M.D., Hartford, Ct. ; David 
Hunt, M.D., Boston: Charles B. AVhite, M.D., Ncm' Orleans, La.; Horatio 
Bridge, M.D., Chicago, 111. ; Henry B. Baker, M.D., Lansing, Mich. ; John 
Ranch, M.D., Springfield, 111. ; Elliot C. Clark, Boston; E. C. Seguin, M.D., 
New York; Dr. Plummer, San Francisco, Cal. ; A. N. Blodgett, M D., Bos- 
ton; Mary Putnam-Jacobi, M.D., New York; C. F. Wingate, New York; 
Elisha Harris, M.l)., New York; E. W„ Gushing, M.D., Boston; Emily F. 
Pope, M.D., Bo-ton; Eliza M. Mosher, M. D., Sherborn, Mass. 

Finance Deioartment — David A. Wells, Norwich, Ct. ; Hamilton A. Hill, 
Boston; George Walker, Puns, France: George S. Coe, New York; Prof 
F. A. Walker, New Haven, Ct. ; B. B. Sherman, New York: J. M. Gregory, 
Chicago, 111.; George F. Baker; New York; Carroll D. Wright, Boston, 
Mass. ; Joseph D. Weeks, Pittsburgh, Penn. ; Edward Atkinson, Boston, 
Mass. ; William F. Ford, New York ; Robert P. Porter, Chicago, 111. '; 
Frederick W. Foote, New York; B. F Nourse, Boston. 

Jurisprudence Department. — Prof, Francis Wayland, New Haven, Ct. ; 
Charles A Peabody, New York; Prof. Henry Hitchcock, St.- Louis, Mo.; 
Rufus King, Cincinnati ; Prof. Carlton Hunt, New Orleans ; Prof. T. W. 
Dwight, New York; E. R. Potter, Kingston, R.I. ; R. H. Dana, Jr., Boston; 

E. Coppee Mitchell, Philadelphia; A. R. Lawton, Savannah, Ga. ; F. J. Dick- 
man. Cleveland, Ohio; B. H. Bristow, New York; Anthony Higgins, AYil- 
mington, Del. ; J. C. Parsons, Hartford, Ct. ; E. J. Phelps, Burlirigton, Vt. ; 
Emerson Etheridge, Memphis, Tenn. ; Peter Hamilton, Mobile, Ala. ; George 
M. Sharpe, Baltimore, Md. ; Theodore Bacon, Rochester, N.Y. ; Theodore 
S. AVoolsey, New Haven, Ct. 

Social Economy Departw^ent. — Prof. AV. B. Rogers, Boston ; Robert 
Treat Paine, Jr , IBostoil; F. H. Wines, Springfield, 111.; Charles L. Brace, 
New York; Rev. Oscar C. McCulloch, Indianapolis, Ind.; Rev. Frank Rus- 
sell, Mansfield, Ohio ; Henry AV. Lord, Detroit, Mich ; AA^'illiam P. Letch- 
worth, Portageville, N Y. ; Mrs. Clara T. Leonard, Springfield, Mass. : Mrs. 
Florence Bayard Lockwood, New A'ork; Miss Anna Hallowell, Philadelphia; 
Robert T. Davis, M.D., Fall River, Mass ; William H. Macey, New York; 

F. B. Sanborn, Concord, Mass. ; Mrs. Henry AVhitman, Boston. 



%. 



OFFICERS OF TPIE ASSOCIATION, 

1881-1889. 



President, Fhaxcis Waylaxd, New Haven, Ct. 

First Vice-President, Daniel C. Gilmax, Baltimore, Md. 

Vice-Presidents. 



Martix B. Axdersox, Rochester, N. Y. 

Thomas C. Amoey, Boston. 

RuFus King, Cincinnati. 

Mrs. John E. Lodge, Boston. 

Miss Maria Mitchell, Potighkeepsie, 

X. Y. 
W. H. RuPFXER, Richmond, Va. 
Henry Hitchcock, St. Louis, Mo. 
E. S. JoYXES, Knoxville, Tenn. 



Theodore D. Woolsey, New Haven. 
Henry B. Baker, Lansing, Mich. 
T. M. Post, St. Louis. 
Nathan Allex, Lowell. 
Henry Yillard, New York. 
Hugh Thompson, Columbia, S. C. 
E. R. Potter, Kingston, R. I. 
J. W. HOYT, Cheyenne, Wyoming. 



General Secretary, F. B. Sanborn, Concord, Mass. 
Treasurer, F. J. Kingsbury, Waterbury, Ct. 



Directors. 



Dorman B. Eaton, New York. 
Horace AVhite, " 

Anson P. Stokes, " 

Jonas >r. Libbey, " 

John Eaton, Washington, D. C. 



T. W. HiGGiNSON, Cambridge. 
George T. Angell, Boston. 
Mrs. Henry Whitman, Boston. 
Carroll D. Wright, " 

H. L. Wayland, Philadelphia. 



Department Officers. 

I. Education. —Prof. W. T. Harris, Concord, Chairman; Mrs. Emily Talbot, 
Boston, Secretary. 

n. ^eaZ^/i.— Walter Chan-ning, M. D., Boston, Chairman; Eliza M. Mosheu. 
M.D., Sherborn, Mass., Secretary. 

III. Finance. — Dayid A. Wells, Norwich, Ct., Chairman; Hamilton A. 
Hill, Boston, Secretary. 

IV. Social Economy. — Trot. W. B. Rogers, Boston, Chairman; Mrs. Henry 
Whitman, Boston, Secretary. 

V. Jurisprudence.— Vvoi. Francis Wayland, New Haven, Chairman; Prof. 
Theodore S. Woolsey, New Haven, Secretary. 

t 

Executive Committee. 

Prof. Francis Wayland, President; F. B. Sanborn, General Secretary; F. J. 
Kingsbury, Treasurer; Mrs. Emily Talbot, Education Secretary; Dr. E. M. 
MosHER,jEre«i'f/i Secretary; Prof. Theodoke S. ^oolsby, Jurisprudence Secretary; 
Hamilton A. Htl'l, Finaiice Secretary: Mrs. Henry AVhitman, Social Economy 
Secretary. 



LIBRARY^OFCONGRES? 



021 339 647 A 




